Affliction
by mags0943
Summary: What happens when Hermione sees something that changes her view of Draco? When romance blooms will she choose the newly changed Draco over Harry who has never done her wrong ..... love triangle-romance-action READ AND REVIEW!... please
1. Chapter 1

_**This story has been fixed up and revamped with the help of the amazing coconutjelly596.**_

_**For those of you how read the original version I suggest re reading it I changed some things.**_

_**I will be greatly disappointed if you don't review…. SO REVIEW!!!**_

Chapter one

"Ugh. How can anyone sleep through all this noise?"

Harry woke up to a buzzing sound, and looked sideways at his alarm clock. He groaned, realizing it was only 7:37, and then sighed because in a few hours he would be leaving the Durslys, and he hoped he would never have to come back to his _family _again. He was already counting the minutes.

Harry realized the buzzing sound was his Uncle Vernon once again attaching bars to the outside of his window. When he moved to leave his room in order to demand why, Harry found the door locked from the outside.

It was two days ago that Harry heard Uncle Vernon screaming from the kitchen Vernon

"Get this ruddy owl away from me!"

Harry ran down the stairs and when he saw the bird pecking his uncle he held in a laugh, and moved to collect the letter from the bird, but it seemed not to care that he was there, it only seemed interested in Vernon .

"You have to take the letter from her" Harry said with a hint of laughter his to his uncle who snatched the letter off the bird's leg and threw it on the floor. The bird picked up the letter and began charging at uncle Vernon who started to run away

Harry was starting to wonder what could have been so important that the bird wouldn't just leave the letter in the table like most do.

Then he spotted the Hogwarts crest on the letter.

Harry walked across the room and took the letter from the angry bird's mouth and handed it to the overweight man.

"You need to open it, it is addressed to you."Harry attempted not to sound smug, seeing that the bird had bitten the man's hand.

"I'm not opening that letter; the last letter I opened got me stuck with you for 17 years of my life, wasted years! All you have accomplished in your miserable life is to eat our food and take up space, not to mention that you allow zoo creatures into my house!"

Knowing what would happen to him if he didn't hold his tongue Harry responded, "If you don't read the letter the bird will never leave and Dumbledore will only send more and more until the neighbors notice and call the police."

A look of horror crossed his face as he took the letter and began to read it aloud.

_Dear, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley_

_My name is Albus Dumbledore, I am writing to you because I would like inform you that due to the fact that Harry will be turning of age in three days time, a team of order members will be arriving at 12 noon on Harry's birthday to bring him to his new residence. I would also like you to know that you will never see him again unless by some chance Harry will someday choose to visit, _You should by now be aware that being related to harry has its dangers_. At one o'clock on July 31 you and your family will_ lose _the magic that has protected you from dark wizards entering your home._

_Good luck _

_Albus Dumbledore _

Vernon just stared at the letter for a moment.

"That fool doesn't even know when a boy becomes a man does he?" Vernon stated boldly, trying to regain some dignity.

Harry glanced at his aunt and cousin. He wondered how long they had been in the room. Then turned back to glare at Vernon.

"In my world we become adults at seventeen not eightteen, and Dumbledore is no fool" Harry said, defending the wise man.

"And if I were you I would run … these men killed my father," he said liking at Petunia" and your sister and when I leave no one will protect you" Petunia looked as if she were going to cry.

"Don't you threaten us boy" said Vernon

"It's no threat it's a fact. They have gone after almost everyone I love and regardless of how you have treated me you are the only family I have left, and they will come after you so if I were you I would run."

And with that Harry turned and left the Durslys standing in his dust he had gone upstairs and packed his bag just in case the order came early.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*

So here he was, locked in his room. It was only a matter of time until the order would be here and anything that the Muggles did to keep him here would be pointless. The Durslys had made it clear that they thought keeping him in the house, even against his will, they could not be harmed, and apparently they forgot they were dealing with wizards.

"10:22," He said out loud, locked in his room alone

He glanced over to his trunk, full to the brim with everything he owned. At the top were books from school and letters he had received from friends over his six summers since starting Hogwarts.

He saw the letter he had received from Ron three weeks ago.

"As purebloods who had aligned themselves, not _only with Muggleborns and half-bloods, but with Dumbledore himself, the Dark side considered the Weasley family to be blood traitors, and as such, they had all been split up for safety. Ron had gone to live with Charlie in Romania and Ginny to some pureblood relative."_

"While In Romania, Ron had met a girl, one of the dragon catchers' daughters." He described her black hair and hazel eyes. It had been the most he had ever seen Ron write about anything. He had gone on for pages about dates they had gone on and how beautiful she was. He said that he was in love.

Good for him.

Harry looked back at his stack of letters. There was the one from Dumbledore, telling Harry he had inherited the Black house when his godfather died, but Harry was not looking forward to living there.

Time was going so slow.

10:30, he noted looking at his watch

He sighed. It wouldn't be long before he could leave this prison. Glancing back down at his stack of letters he once again got hit with a wave of guilt as he did almost every time he thought of Hermione.

There had been an attack on the Granger house hold. Four of Voldemorts best death eaters had bad burst into the house and triggered the alarms, alerting the Order. Three were captured, but the identities were unknown to Harry. Hermione, in her hysterics had erased her parent's memories. They would never remember they had had a daughter. To their knowledge, they were both widowed and had met and fallen in love on a couples cruse and were on their honeymoon, traveling the world under new names.

In her letter she sounded happy. Whether it was for Harry**'**s benefit or not he didn't know. She was staying at headquarters with the Weasley parents

Harry opened the creased letter,

Dear Harry,

How is your summer? I hope your family is treating you well. I haven't received any responses from you. I must say I'm quite worried. I have missed you so much this summer. We're planning a birthday party for you; it's going to be great I promise. Thank you again for letting me stay in your house. I'm making good use of your library here; you wouldn't believe some of the spells we can utilize against the death eaters. I'm making a list; we must practice them when you get here. I have found a secret room in this house it's an armory behind a book shelf in the library it's perfect because no one would expect to bother me in here. I'll show you as soon as you get here. Have I mentioned how much I have missed you? I have been so lonely since coming here. Has Ron told you about his girlfriend? It seems like everyone is happy right now but me, I hope the peace lasts a while longer.

Love,

Hermione

Harry felt guilty about her parents, about not answering her letters, and about her being lonely

But harry knew he could have done nothing to help her parents while he was locked up in this house. And he could not send out any responses, because there have been bars on his windows, but in a few hours he can help her loneliness.

He was still looking at the letter when he heard a click of the lock on the outside of the door. He looked up, fully expecting that the order came early. But it was Petunia standing there looking nervous and as if she had been crying .Harry had never seen his aunt cry or look nervous. Regardless of how this woman had treated him she looked as if she had something she needed to get out harry motioned for her to come sit she look relieved for a second. She sat.

"I wanted to talk to you before you left "she said trying to be strong

Harry just nodded she continued

"You never knew your parents and I won't pretend that I knew your father but I knew Lily." She smiled slightly

"She was my best friend and I looked up to her. Did you know she was older than me?"

Harry had always assumed that his mother was younger then the woman sitting in front of him. Harry shook his head.

"She was a beautiful person. She got our grandmother's red hair and our father's green eyes. I wound up with brown eyes and brown hair. I used to follow that girl around everywhere; we were inseparable until her eleventh birthday, when she got her letter." She opened a shoe box harry had just realized she had brought in, and pulled out an old letter. His mother's Hogwarts letter. Harry took it and stared at it. He never had anything of his mother's but his eyes. He looked up gratefully. He could tell she wasn't done.

"Your mother gave me that letter the day she left for Hogwarts. She promised me that I would get mine when I turned eleven and to hold onto it until then. I never got my letter. "

"Lily tried to get me in to that school. She told me she begged, but they would not let me go and every year she left me to go to that school. And I stayed home to go to public school."

Harry couldn't believe he felt bad for this woman, but he did

"I looked forward to her graduation for seven years waiting for her to come home, so things could go back to normal. But she didn't come home she moved in with that potter boy and announced she was to be married. Our mother was unbelievably happy. She gave Lilly her ring to wear and they were married at the church down the street."

Harry had always assumed they had a magical wedding

Once again petunia opened the box and pulled out a black velvet box and handed it to harry , he tried to look inside the shoe box but petunia gave him a stern look and harry couldn't help his lips curling a bit upwards . He looked at the velvet box but didn't open it.

Petunia kept talking "I met Vernon and married him within three months of your parents wedding I thought that would bring us closer together. I became pregnant and 4 months later so was lily. She would visit once a week and we could compare our pregnancies." She opened the box and pulled out a Muggle print of the two very pregnant woman they were both beautiful.

"After my son was born, Vernon said he did not want Dudley near magic, I gave in barely saw lily after that. You were born and I saw you green eyes like Lily, the first thing I saw you do was make your binky float to you. I knew you were magical. My son had shown no signs of any magic just as I hadn't I been angry, so I left your mother's house and never saw her again." Tears were streaming down her face

"I couldn't see past the magic all my life I was jealous of her and now even my son didn't add up "

"Halloween came it was always her favorite day since she found out about her abilities and it was always the day I thought of her the most "

"The doorbell rang and you were there with a letter saying that my big sister had been murdered by magic, the one thing I always wanted. I begged Vernon, begged him to let me keep you, you were all I had left of her. I told myself that day that I would do anything I could to stop the magic from forming within you. I hated you and loved you equally harry this is a box of things that were left to me in lily's will diaries, letters ,the ring and some pictures it should have been given to you a long time ago and I'm sorry."

To Harry's surprise she hugged him crying repeating that she was sorry over and over when she was done she stood up and pulled herself together. As she turned to leave she looked at Harry, and said, "When you find love like your mother did, and give that ring to the woman you want to spend your live with, I would like to be there at the wedding as your mother should have been able to. I'm so sorry about everything."

Harry found his voice and said two words that meant the world to Petunia

"Thank you"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Harry sat there on his bed for what seemed like hours, looking from the shoe box next to him and then back to the velvet box he still had in his hands. Looking down he opened the box it was a beautiful diamond not too large but not too small with two green emeralds on each side.

For once he had gotten something he really wanted from his aunt on his birthday.

He stared at it for a while then he noticed the letter still sitting on his lap from Hermione. And he noticed the 'love Hermione.' He remembered how she had said she was lonely and how she said that she missed him. Although he considered both Ron and Hermione his best friends, in recent years Harry had developed additional feelings for Hermione that he could not deny. Looking again at her letter, Harry began to wonder for the first time if his feelings were matched in her.

He had always admired Hermione since third year when she punched Malfoy. He knew she could handle herself, but he had always thought that she would end up with Ron or someone else who she would be safe with. He knew that as long as Voldemort was alive, anyone he loved would be in constant danger.

And then he heard a pop right outside his door he looked at the clock and saw that it was noon at last. He pulled out his wand, just in case. There was a knock on the door he told them to come in, figuring that if it was a death eater they wouldn't knock. The door opened and he saw her. Hermione had a huge smile plastered on her face and she ran to him and pulled him in to a hug. They realized that their hug may have lasted a little too long because simultaneously they backed up. It was at that moment that she saw the bars on the windows, and he remembered he was holding an engagement ring and her letter. He quickly put both in is trunk he thought he saw her glance over before she looked at the windows again

"So now I see why I haven't gotten any letters" she stated breaking the ice

"Yeah, your owl passed the letter through the bars and flew off."

Plopping herself down on his bed she started talking about her summer he couldn't help but think about how he had never had a girl in his room before

"… and this room has swords and books on fighting techniques you have to see it I haven't told anyone about it"

They talked like this for a while. It felt good to harry to talk to someone who didn't openly hate him

At 12:30 he heard 2 more pops and saw the Weasley's outside his door

"Well you my dear are entirely too skinny, do they feed you here?" said Mrs. Weasley pulling him into a hug

"Hello Harry. Are you all packed up?"

"Yes sir."

"Well then, let's get going. I will take your trunk, son."

Hermione smiled and held out her hand harry nervously grabbed it and after hearing two pops she winked at him and he felt it. He would never get used to apparition. He had yet to take lessons, and had only Apperated with someone a few times.

He thudded into the living room off Number Twelve Grimmauld Place heard Mr. Weasley say he was going to bring his trunk upstairs for him and he thanked the man Harry didn't notice that he was still holding the girl's hand until she began pulling him up the stairs towards the library when she got there she smiled and let go of his hand.

Opened the door …

"I completely forgot you had told me in your letter they were planning a party". She just smiled.

There were probably 15 people there.

When they realized he was there, there was a chorus of happy birthdays.

People from school, people from the order, all the Weasleys except Percy were there, too.

Ron came rushing over dragging a pretty girl behind him. Ron looked like the girl was a trophy he had won before wishing Harry a happy birthday. He introduced the girl as Sara to Harry and Hermione and dove into a story about how they had met and harry was all too happy to be interrupted when a cake was brought in and people started singing.

"Happy birthday to you…"

Harry was looking around at all the faces, a feeling of guilt washed over him. Being friends with him and loving him had torn many of these people's lives apart

"Happy birthday to you… "

Voldemort had to be defeated.

"Happy birthday dear Harry …"

At that moment he decided that by this time next year he would have defeated his enemy and he would do anything he needed to do in order to kill Voldemort and as many death eaters he could get his hands on.

"Happy birthday too youuuuu"

There was cheering and harry looked over at Hermione "Make a wish harry," she said with a smile on her face .

It was not hard for harry do decide what his wish would be.

He wished for the courage, strength and power he would need to defeat the dark lord.

Harry put on a happy face and began opening the gifts that were passed to him

He was given books on powerful spells from moony, harry thanked him thinking he had probably gotten the same gift from Hermione

A box of honey dukes chocolate from Ron

Ginny had given him a framed picture. In the picture there was Hermione and Ron with his arm around his shoulder and harry with his arm around ginnys shoulder. Harry could not quite remember taking the picture but he loved the gift all the same and thanked Ginny with a hug. When he let go she shyly ran off he couldn't help but notice how red her face had gotten.

After another 15 minutes of gift giving and about an hour of mingling people started to say their goodbyes. Ron, Charlie, and Sara said good bye and Ron said he would be back in time for the train to leave once everyone was gone it was just him and Hermione they started to clean up before she called him over to a book case

"You know Harry I never gave you your birthday present." She reached up and grabbed a book called _Family Honor _ and pulled it down instantly the whole bookshelf shimmered and he saw her walk through it like the barrier at 9 ¾

As soon as he stepped through the barrier he saw a huge hidden room with swords along the walls. At the far end of the room was a line of portraits. He stared in awe as he noticed a portrait of Sirius beaming at him

"Happy birthday harry" he heard in his god fathers voice

Could it really be, could there really have been a portrait of Sirius that he hadn't known about he looked at Hermione questioningly she nodded

"Sirius is it really you?" As he stepped closer Hermione followed him

"In the flesh …Well you know what I mean." He said with a chuckle

And with that chuckle from serious he finely let himself believe that he was looking at his godfather again

Seeing that harry was still in a state of shock, Sirius began to talk

"The room you are in is made for your use in learning to fight, in addition to anything else. It can only be used by a person who has a direct black bloodline or deemed worthy by one of the portraits. In your and Hermione's cases, that would be me" he said still smiling

"We can control the room harry like the room of requirement only better" she said

Harry began looking around the room there were quite a few doors

He and serious and Hermione talked for quite a long time harry learned a lot about the room they were in.

Upon walking through the bookcase they had been transported to a new hidden location. The room was untraceable, and while in the room they were untraceable as well. One of the most alarming things was that the room was actually not in the house at all. Harry couldn't help but think that could be useful.

Harry after yawning a few times himself and hearing Hermione yawn as well decided that it was time for them both to turn in and promised serious he would return tomorrow. Serious told harry to be prepared to begin training because they had no time to waste. Before leaving, harry saw Hermione grab a box from one of the tables, after pushing the book back in place she turned to him and handed him the box

"Hermione you have given me enough with the room and serious I really can't accept anything more from you." Harry said sincerely trying to give her back the box

"Harry please I worked so hard." Seeing her pleading eyes only mad harry feel bad about trying not to accept the gift and he began opining the box.

When he lifted the lid he saw two necklaces one a thin delicate chain with a golden pendent on it that had a red markings on it that harry could not recognize and the other had a thicker chain with an identical pendent on it. Hermione took the thick one and put it over his neck

"I made these two necklaces the chains themselves are unbreakable and are unable to be removed by anyone but I and the pendants are port keys to this room." Harry stared at her in amazement but she wasn't done yet.

She pulled reached for his pendent and took hold of it coming to stand next to him and began explaining the markings on the pendent. They were runes some for strength, power, and one that Hermione said she had added a spell porously making the chains and pendants invisible so that if ever captured he could make it so that the enemy could not see he was wearing it .

Harry looked down at his best female friend and realized suddenly, how very female she was, gazing up at him with her melted-chocolate eyes. A deep sense of gratitude and something else he couldn't name to himself came flooding through his body. It was an unexpected sensation, and partly because of it, partly because he'd wanted to try this with her for a while, he found his head moving down to close the height difference between them. Hermione looked a bit surprised, but also excited as his lips closed upon hers, and he relished at the soft sigh she let out and the gentle press of her lips.

Hermione's heart was thundering in her chest as she nervously kissed back her best friend. She had never been kissed before, and she found the sensation greatly enjoyable, especially as Harry, taking her tacit compliance as permission, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him tightly. They pulled back slightly, before coming together for another kiss, and Hermione allowed her mouth to fall open, breathing in his masculine scent. Just as she was really getting into the kiss, however, Harry, realizing what he had done, took a step back

Hermione was not at all expecting the kiss and stood wide eyed as he mumbled about how he was tired and would see her in the morning.

As he walked to his room he mumbled to himself

"Stupid, stupid, stupid…Why did I kiss her?" When he reached his room he plopped down on his bed and began thinking about his day first his Aunt then Sirius and now he had gone and kissed Hermione. It had been a very eventful day and hopefully he wouldn't pay the consequences in the morning

Taking hold of his pendent and staring at the runes Hermione had carved he remembered the wish he had made before blowing out the candles

Maybe he would get the power and strength he would need to fight Voldemort

That was his last thought before drifting off to sleep.

AN: The kiss is 100% coconutjelly596 she is my beta and she does all my fluff…. You can thank her.

Please leave a review !!!!!


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Four **_

Harry woke up to Hermione Knocking to tell him breakfast was ready. He stood up and went to get in the shower. He spent quite a long time under the water thinking about the day before ,Petunia, the ring, the party, the Room, Sirius's portrait and the moment he had not been able to get out of his mind since it had happened the kiss between him and Hermione, it had been innocent enough but it had definitely changed the way he would think of Hermione now. He really hoped that she wouldn't start acting strange.

He stepped out of the shower and dried off and wrapped the towel around his waist and walked back to his room. About five feet from his bedroom door Hermione opened her door she saw him.

"Good morning." she said cheerily she if nothing happened, she did not breaking eye contact before walking down the stairs.

"Good morning" he said knowing there was no way she could hear him.

He went into his room and picked out his outfit. He would need to go shopping soon for new clothes.

About ten minutes later harry came down to find eggs bacon toast sausage and pumpkin juice Hermione was reading the newspaper

"A letter came this morning Dumbledore will be here at 1:30 to talk." Hermione said without looking up

"Once your done eating we should go and practice I want to get you up to my speed I have been practicing for weeks. The Weasleys will be gone until Wednesday there visiting Ron and Charlie. "

It was at that moment that harry decided that if she was going to act as if nothing happened then so was he.

They finished eating and made their way upstairs to the library. He went right to the book and pulled .The wall shimmered they walked through. There was a table where it hadn't been the night before.

On the table there were black sweat pants suitable for working out for him and what looked like sweat pants and a sports bra for her. A bra? Was she really going to work out in a sports bra?

"If you go to the wall and think bathroom then a door will appear and you can change in there."

Harry did as she said and when he opened the door to the bathroom he saw that it was more like a pool house the tub easily beat the tub in the prefect's bathroom and it looked to have twice as many nozzles harry made a mental note to come in here one night alone.

While getting dressed harry promised himself no matter how she looked in her sports bra he wasn't going to look… ok he wasn't going to stare at her he when he left the room he saw her. Hermione was wearing the sports bra and she was wearing it well harry had never noticed the curves of her body before.

"If you're done staring at me I usually start off jogging a bit."

As she said this the room shimmered and it turned into a football sized field with a two lane track around it she started stretching and he took that as a hint to do the same he had never jogged or worked out for that matter but if Hermione could do it then so could he.

As they were walking another table appeared it contained two iPods, Harry looked very amused

"You didn't think I was going to let you run in silence."

He reached for the iPod closest to her and she reached out for the same one

"This one's mine, they are program the music you would like and unless you like old boy bands and American pop stars I think I'll take this one ."

He grabbed the other and put it on, he like the song but he had never heard it before he had never spent much time as a child listening to music. She looked at him and she mouthed "Ready?"He nodded

It was about three minutes before he realized that he was out of shape. And with one look at Hermione he could tell she was very much in shape and very much holding herself back on his account.

This was not good not only was it embarrassing but how could he expect himself to defeat Voldemort without being able to run a mile he dedicated himself to keeping up and he fully understood why the room hadn't given him a shirt. When she finally stopped after what she said was a mile but he was sure it was much longer. A water hose appeared Hermione took a sip and held it out for him with a giggle she put her thumb over the hose end and sprayed harry right in the face

And as much as he needed the cool down he was not going to let her get away with that so when another hose appeared it became an all out water fight between the two. It was hard to say who won the fight they were both dripping from head to toe and it was Sirius who broke up the fight, both hoses disappeared. Harry could see him laughing in his portrait.

"Now I know I'm not an auror any more but I do not believe that you can defeat Voldemort with a water hose." He said with a chuckle.

"Don't you think its time to start wand work?"said Hermione trying to sound professional.

But as she said the words the room shimmered into an arena with dummies and what looked like suits of armor with wands in their hands. Hermione walked over to a table off to the side an grabbed a book and jogged over to him

"Since the beginning of summer I have been researching spells " she said looking nervously from the pad to harry, he took the papers and looked at the spells and looked up at her.

"I have never heard of any of these spells" he asked looking a little worried

Well of corse you haven't, they are dark magic Harry, I have been thinking and I don't think it would be an even fight if you don't learn to use dark magic "when she saw he looked skeptical she continued "Just because you know how to do dark spells doesn't make you a dark wizard, But it does make you as powerful as the dark wizards.

It was at that moment that the room changed into a cozy living room with couches and a fire place. Harry and Hermione looked at each other questioningly until harry heard Sirius talking he turned to see a tall blond haired boy standing there talking to Sirius.

"Malfoy?" he said without even thinking immediately pulling out his wand

"Potter what are you doing in my room?"He said with venom in his voice

"Your room are you insane this is my room what are you doing in my house." Harry said temporarily forgetting that Hermione had told him that the room wasn't technically in the house.

"This room equally belongs to both of you and you will share it or I will lock you both out"Sirius said in a stern voice.

At this Draco turned and sat in his couch without another word to harry or Hermione.

"Well Sirius we can't very well expect to do any training while he is in here and the room has a couch."Hermione said clearly not too happy that the room she had found had been invaded

Harry saw Draco quickly look over at Hermione when she had said training.

"Then you will have to talk to him." Said Sirius leaving his portrait empty

Hermione decided that she would try and reason with the boy and went to sit on a couch near the fire

"Malfoy, Harry and I would appreciate it if you would leave the room we will be training until one o'clock and we cannot do that in a living room."

"I don't see why I should do anything for you mudblood." Draco said leaning back on the couch clearly exhausted

When harry heard him call Hermione a mudblood he came around the couch and pulled out his want and pointed it at the boy.

"Don't you ever call her that again, do you understand me u pureblooded prick."

Draco didn't look at all worried about the wand being pointed at his face. He looked lazily back to Hermione.

"Can you tell your boyfriend to get his want out of my face. I am not leaving."

"Harry is not my boyfriend, but I can't imagine why you would want to be in the same room as harry and I ." she said matter of factly then looking at harry she saw him lower his wand

Malfoy let out a weak chuckle and said "If you honestly believe that I _want_ to be in the same room as either of you your insane, if I could leave I would now if you two would please leave me alone I need some rest. "

He fell down on the couch and pretended to go to sleep ignoring Hermione's

"Fine be stubborn, we can be stubborn too." She said as she stomped over to the book that had some point been dropped on the floor she picked it up and strolled over to harry and pulled her wand out.

"Umm Hermione?" harry said quietly

"What harry?"

"Maybe we shouldn't do those spells."

Draco turned his head a little so he could hear a bit better

What do you mean we shouldn't do the spells we already talked about this harry they do not make you evil they make you powerful."

"I didn't mean because of that, I meant because he is here and do you really want him and his family knowing we are practicing the dark arts"

This piqued Draco's attention and he stood up

"Did I hear you correctly potter? The dark arts." He said very surprised that the golden boy would ever dream of using a single dark spell.

"What's it to you Malfoy are you scared I'm going to kill all of your death eater buddies? Because I will kill them, and then your father and then you."

"That would be a great dream potter but Granger here is wrong not only do the dark arts need to be done only by a dark wizard but they do make you darker. The more spells you do the darker you will become and the darker you become the darker spells you can cast. It's a vicious circle really not to mention that he who kills the dark lord becomes the dark lord." Draco said knowingly

And by the shocked expressions on their faces Draco could tell that Harrys mentor Dumbledore had never told harry that little fact. He would use that to his advantage

"Oh. I get it. He never told you, he has just been using you to kill off his enemy so that when you're in power he can use you as his puppet."

"I am no one's puppet Malfoy."

"Fine don't believe me potter but I'll bet you my wand that you can cast one of those spells, sooner or later you will be begging for help from me"

"I wouldn't hold your breath." Harry said as he looked at his watch and saw that is was almost one and he knew Dumbledore would be there soon.

Harry and Hermione left Draco lying on the couch and went to clean up

Harry had decided that he would move his things into the master bedroom because he was the master of the house now the only problem was he had never seen the master bedroom maybe he would ask Hermione if she had seen it after Dumbledore

Harry spent his shower thinking about what Malfoy had said. If Malfoy was right about him becoming the dark lord after he killed voldemort then Dumbledore had lied to him. Dumbledore had used him.

Harry decided that he was going to take control of his own life.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The next day, Harry decided that he was not going to let the presence of Malfoy alter his and Hermione's training plans. He planned on going about his business as if the annoying blonde wasn't there.

They had just entered the room when Harry saw that Malfoy was conspicuously absent. Malfoy had made it painfully clear the day before that he was not planning to leave the room any time soon. And it was for that reason that Harry wondered what had changed his mind.

He looked over at Hermione in her jogging suit. Harry didn't think he would ever get used to seeing her in the tight outfit. He dragged his eyes away when he heard her say, "We should stretch."

She sat on the floor with her legs out in front of her and motioned for him to sit in front of her. She explained to him the stretching exercise she had learned in gymnastics when she was a kid, "You sit in front of me and spread your legs, I spread mine and we put our feet together so there's a diamond shape then I grab your hands and we pull on each other. It stretches almost all the muscles in the legs."

Harry just stared down on her trying to convince himself that that she had meant nothing inappropriate in what she had said while simultaneously trying not to look down her top.

"...Ok" he said while sitting.

He did as she said and realized that he was kind of sore from yesterday's running.

She held out both hands and looked at him. Harry took her hands and felt himself blush. He wasn't sure what it was that made him blush, whether it was the hand holding or the look that she gave him when she held out her hands.

"Pull a little, not to hard though." She said as she held on tight to his hands

He pulled and was amazed at how flexible she was. She sat up and said that it was his turn.

"Squeeze my hands if I'm pulling too hard ok?"

He nodded. He did try not to show how painful it was to stretch these muscles. He was determined not to let Hermione find out that he couldn't do anything that she could. Once they both stretched she stood up.

Harry saw a strange look on her face. It was a mix between surprised and angry and Harry thought he saw that glint in her eyes that he only saw when a teacher asked a question she knew the answer to. He turned to see Malfoy sitting on the couch reading the parchment in which Hermione had written all of the dark magic spells that she planned on them learning together.

"You know Malfoy, it would almost seem like you are interested in those spells."

Malfoy hadn't seen them turn their attention to him and looked up from the spell book with his trademark smirk on his face.

"You wish Granger, I just wanted to see what you planned on learning, that way I can use it against you later on."

Malfoy looked down at the book and saw countless spells he had been taught years ago. He had been trained by his father in the arts of fighting since he was seven years old. It was the ever so popular Death Eater training regimen that Voldemort had instructed all Death Eaters to teach their offspring so that when they turned of age they would be a more powerful generation.

Even after the defeat of Voldemort his forever loyal father had trained him mercilessly insisting all the while that voldemort was not gone forever and that Draco must be ready for his return.

Draco knew that his father was ultimately right and that was the reason that he was undeniably Voldemort's favorite and therefore his second in command. And Draco being the only son of the second in command was on the fast track to becoming a death eater.

All the death eaters in Voldemort's inner circle knew that the dark lord was waiting the day that Draco would be initiated into their ranks, his seventeenth birthday.

Looking at the book of spells ad then back up at the two people glaring at him he held out the book harry hooked on from behind Hermione and saw her take the book he couldn't help but wonder what she had planned, he knew by the look in her eyes that she did have a plan.

She grabbed the book and turned to harry and mouthed for him to follow her.

She walked far enough away that she knew Draco could not hear without a spell but close enough that he could not ignore what was going on.

"I believe that in order to gain power we should attempt to conquer all forms of magic. One of the texts I read from said that one of the most powerful forms of magic is elemental magic. The four elements are fire, water, earth and water." she said in a teacher like voice

Draco knew she was right. He had cast an amplifying charm on the two so he could hear what they were saying.

He knew that the mud blood was right Voldemort mastered elemental magic in his twenty's and it was very powerful magic.

Since hearing the prophecy that Voldemort told the top death eaters Draco had been thinking that the only way he could escape his fate of becoming a Death Eater was the death of Voldemort. And since Harry was the only one who could supposedly kill Voldemort he had been trying all summer to accept the fact that his fate had been chosen for him.

Draco had seen Voldemort in action he had seen him kill many people and he had seen many people try and fight back. And looking in the direction of Harry Potter he thought that there was a 15% chance that Harry survives and that was only if Harry got extremely lucky.

But Potter seemed to have an endless supply of luck.

He had made it past the basilisk in second year and no one knew how he had managed to escape forty Dementors in third. And he had managed to escape from Voldemort even after he had been resurrected in forth year. And last year he had gotten away from all the death eaters in the department of mysteries.

Draco had to admit there was a possibility that Harry could be powerful with a bit of training.

And if he helped Harry, Harry would owe him and if he did manage to beat the dark lord, Harry would be sure to rise to power and Draco would surely rise with him. Draco snapped out of it

Who Draco was kidding, he was thinking of betraying his father and the dark lord. And if Harry didn't win Draco would die a traitor's death.

Draco sat there for about two hours looking at the two practicing and he had to admit that both of them had redeeming qualities. Harry seemed to be perfectly in tune with his wand, it seemed to Draco that it was more of an extension of his arm then a tool he was using, Draco knew that that was an exceptional quality to have if you wanted to learn wandless magic. And then there was Granger. The Mudblood had power, it was undeniable looking at her. She was spot on with the wand movements and was even showing signs of the fire spell working; it looked like there were tiny scorch marks on her dummy like someone had held a match there for a second.

Harry was having the opposite problem his dummy was completely covered it scorch marks.

Draco, however, knew that both were doing the spell wrong.

Frankly Draco was a bit surprised that they had been able to accomplish anything at all when he had learned the spell he had been nine. It had taken him hours to get to the point that he could cause fire to shoot from his wand and three days to be able to control the speed, power and temperature of the fire.

"'Incendia tempestas" Harry shouted at his dummy and a huge wave of fire shot at the dummy, it flinched even though it had been set to immobile. And it erupted in flames for about a second before the flames were extinguished

Hermione clearly thought she was failing by the look on her face.

Draco stood and took aim at her dummy from across the room and whispered the name of the spell and a steady stream of fire flowed from his wand and circled the dummy. You could see the dummy through the ribbon-like web of fire surrounding the dummy.

It was being toasted like a piece of bread. Draco smirked as the two stared at the dummy. The spell was meant to kill slowly, as were all the elemental magic spells, but of course in the interest of time you could speed up the process. Draco focused on the heat and it increased to the point that the dummy was reduced to ashes on the floor.

Harry and Hermione had looks of admiration and fear on their faces as he they tuned to Draco who cockily flipped his wand in the air and caught it before sitting back down.

And Hermione knew at that moment that he wasn't going to make this easy for her she was going to have to beg.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

The next day Harry and Hermione decided they were just going to do homework, truth be told harry was a little put off yesterday by Malfoy's sudden burst of magical knowledge. Harry knew he was the son of a death eater and he also knew that he has the second highest grades in their year. But he did not know that he knew so much dark magic. Deep ... deep inside of harry he wanted to ask Draco to help him train, who better to train him then a boy who was trained to fight alongside his enemy? Harry knew that Draco had no reason to help Harry and would probably rather see him dead.

Harry was sitting in his room, the Weasley parents would be coming home late tonight to pack their things and move back to the Burrow. The wards had been upgraded and they had asked harry to be their secret keeper. Ginny and Ron would be coming to stay with Harry and Hermione tomorrow morning.

Hermione was in the library researching new charms, when she realized that in all the commotion from yesterday she left the book in the room. She stood up and went to the book shelf where the lever was, the wall shimmered and she entered. It took her a second before seeing the book on the table in the back where she and harry had been practicing the day before. As she went for it she saw movement and heard a wince from over by one of the doors the turned and saw Malfoy duck in to one of the rooms. Her curiosity got the better of her and she followed. She wasn't sure if he had seen her or not, but when she got to the door and saw that there was blood on the handle she became alarmed. Was it his blood or did he hurt someone? She reached for the door and saw that it was unlocked. She was surprised; _I guess he didn't see me,_ she thought to herself as she turned the knob.

He turned, startled, he seemed jumpy.

She noticed right away that the blood she had seen was freely flowing from his clearly broken nose.

And upon a closer look she saw that he was also favoring his left leg and his right wrist seemed to have been snapped in two.

"Oh …. My god Draco, what happened?" Hermione said trying to hold back tears. She had a fairly good idea of what had happened and seeing him turn away and try to leave the room, she stopped him.

"Ok its fine, you don't have to tell me a thing, just … just let me help. I studied a lot of healing charms. And you know you can't do it yourself with that wrist of yours. "

He said nothing but he clearly didn't have the strength to fight her off, and he heard the determination in her voice. He just looked at her and blinked.

She took his lack of response as a positive sign and motioned for him to sit. They were in a courtyard that could be used for Quidditch if necessary but she just saw it as a relaxing place.

"What hurts the most?" She asked in a voice full of concern.

"My… my ribs are broken." He said, his voice nasally because of the blood still pouring out of his nose. She knelt down before him and looking up used the charm to fix his nose before casting scorgify to clear the blood.

"I'm going to need you to take off your shirt." she said trying to keep her voice professional but knowing she couldn't stop the shaking he reached up to undo the buttons with his good arm and undid them slowly . When he had undone all of them she noticed quite a few things at once. Firstly, he seemed extremely nervous and second, he had a perfectly chiseled six pack. The last thing Hermione noticed was that it was covered in scars, small wiry scars that reached across his stomach and on to his back. Hermione absentmindedly ran her finger along one of the scars, thinking that they were beautiful in a morbid kind of way. She snapped out of her stupor when he winced as she touched on of the broken ribs.

She looked up apologetically and saw he had a look of shame on his face she gave him a reassuring smile and they both let out a breath they didn't know they had been holding. She took out her wand and got to work on his ribs, three broken and one fractured. She moved on to his wrist without another word. When it came to his leg, after using an internal examination charm she saw it was broken in two places and she could see bone scars that suggested that it had been broken several times before, at least three.

She thanked both the room for providing the pain potions to help him because she would have to set the bone. And she thanked the medical section in the Hogwarts library for giving her the knowledge to help Draco.

Speaking for the first time in about an hour she told him she was going to have to set the leg, he seemed to already know this because he braced himself without a word.

The pointed her wand at the leg a regrettably muttered the setting charm. And for the first time that day she heard him cry out in pain and she dropped to her knees and poured another pain potion down is open mouth. He was crying. Draco Malfoy was crying in front of her. She couldn't help the tears welling up in her eyes as she sat on the bench next to him as he tried to compose himself. For some reason she could not recall later, Hermione reached out and put both arms around him.

This boy sitting in front of her had always seemed like he was sitting on top of the world, better then everyone. The purebloods seemed to have it so easy, Draco seemed to have it so easy but in the last two hours she had seen a side of him she was moderately sure that no one had ever seen before. The helpless boy.

Draco sat there and as much as he tried to convince himself that it was wrong and that he didn't need her, he couldn't bring himself to lift his head off of her shoulder and he couldn't seem to speak either.

She seemed content to sit in silence with him for as long as he needed it.

It was about twenty minutes before he decided what he was going to say to her. For some reason he didn't feel the need to hold back.

"I … I went back to say goodbye to my mother." He said looking down he was still in pain but continued.

"My father was a regular ranked death eater before _his _downfall." He had venom in his strained voice when he referred to voldemort.

"Father was able to convince the ministry that he only accepted the mark in return for the promise of my safety. He paid for a new wing to be build in St. Mungo's and walked away with a slap on the wrist. " He took a deep breath and saw she was listening intently to every work he was saying. He relaxed a bit and continued.

"For years growing up I heard stories, of killings and murders done on the behalf of the man my father worshiped. He swore that he would come back. Mother and I thought he was losing his mind some of the time. Father always said Malfoy blood is littered with seers. I idolized my father. I wanted to be everything he was. I wanted to fight like him and I prayed for voldemort return so father could be happy."

Hermione was surprised to hear Draco say his name. Not many people were brave enough to say it.

She looked up at him. He looked like he was in pain. She silently handed him another potion.

He took it, downed the bottle and continued after giving her a grateful look.

"I was taught to hate, hate all people who my father hated, all people voldemort hated." He took a breath. She knew that was his way of apologizing for everything he had done. She had forgiven him hours ago.

"I learned to fight, kill and do my father's bidding. I wanted to make him happy. I was eig…eight when the beatings started. " she knew how hard this was for him. "My mother had been dealing with it for as long as I could remember, but not me. It was when I told him …. When I told him I wouldn't kill again."

He looked grateful that Hermione didn't look angry or scared that he had killed someone.

"I was in bed for about a month, and he wouldn't heal me magically until I swore my loyalty to voldemort."

"In my eyes I was beginning to believe he was never coming back. But he did. And father was his most loyal of all death eaters and presented me in the summer of fourth year to voldemort. Since then, he has hit me every time I showed signs of disloyalty. It wasn't until this summer I discovered the refuge room, that's what I call it because only someone with Black blood can enter, so father cannot follow me in. I went back to say goodbye to Mother, she was the only one that ever showed genuine care for me. I couldn't tell her about the room he would read her mind and make her come in and retrieve me. He caught me in my room just as I was reaching for the latch. " he took a deep breath clearly grateful to get that off his chest.

"And now here we are," he said, signifying he was finished speaking.

Draco's story and the vulnerable look on his perfect face made Hermione want to comfort him, but she knew that there was little she would be able to do. A sudden thought occurred to her, and in a moment of madness, she knelt over the face belonging to the boy who, up until a few hours previously, had been one of her least favored people in existence, and placed a gentle peck on his lips. When she came to her senses and pulled away, she looked down, covering her face with her long brown hair, waiting for his wrath to spill over her. But to her surprise, he did not respond with disgust or anger. The never-silenced Draco Malfoy had nothing to say, and she finally had to know if he was even still there. When she looked up, she saw him resting comfortably on one elbow, a surprised, yet not displeased look on his face. He moved her hair from her face wordlessly and, asking permission in a way Harry had not, brought his lips just inches from hers, allowing her to close the gap or refuse him.

Hermione, of course, pressed her lips lightly to his again. She only had Harry and Ron to compare to, but she was quite certain that later in her life, she would continue to remember Draco as an excellent kisser. He molded his lips to hers, pressing with a sense of possession that thrilled her to the core. His lips parted at just the right time, at the end of each kiss, so she was never sure if it was about to end, or if he would deepen the kiss. His fingers curled through her bushy hair, while the other hand met her waist, drawing her down into a half-laying position beside him. Hermione's own less sophisticated reaction was to wrap both arms around his neck, throwing him off balance so that he landed on top of her. This graceless motion, followed by a moment of disorientation was enough to bring the pair crashing back to reality. They disentangled themselves and stood up, keeping a careful distance from one another.

Draco muttered an apology before saying something about being tired and Hermione said she should be getting back to Harry, he would wonder where she was. She noticed the hurt expression on his face before she saw his usual stony demeanor pass over his face once again. He asked only that she not mention their conversation to anyone. She nodded before he turned and left the court yard. Leaving her standing there.

She left a few minutes later, determined to tell him nothing was going on between her and Harry. When she entered Draco's refuge room, he was nowhere to be found she assumed he went into one of the rooms. She went over to the table, grabbed the book, and went to the door. When she left she nearly collided with harry, who appeared to be entering the room.

"Where have you been? I have been looking for you all night." He looked at her, clearly not happy, but Hermione didn't know what to say to him.

AN: We can thank my amazing beta for the kiss between Draco and Hermione. She is amazing. She also vamped up the kiss between harry and Hermione in chapter 2 so go read ….

I HIT 110 READS LAST NIGHT !!!!!

But not one of my amazing readers left a comment.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Eight

Hermione was standing before harry speechless. Draco had requested her silence, but harry had asked her a direct question.

Taking a deep breath she made a decision.

"I was reading in here looking for spells and studying for ways to become your secret keeper." She said looking up at him unfailingly

"And I remembered Sirius had said I could enter a room thinking about a library. I did and it was filled with spell books. "she said in an amazed voice, knowing he would believe she had lost track of time in the library.

He seemed to relax "Oh …. I went in looking for you, but I didn't think about a library. I guess that's why I didn't see you."

She silently applauded herself for her successful lie but couldn't help feeling guilty.

"Molly and Arthur are downstairs with Ron, Ginny and Sara."

"Sara? Ron's girlfriend?" Hermione said, wondering what Sara would be doing here.

"Yeah I don't get it either, but they are here and waiting for us." He said with a smile. It warmed her heart.

Hermione was beyond confused she didn't know what to think.

That kiss with Draco was amazing it was so much different than the kiss she shared with Harry. There was so much emotion and passion in Draco's kiss. Harry's kiss was pretty amazing in its self though. She just didn't know. She had told Draco nothing was going on with Harry, and even though he showed no reaction to the comment she hoped it might mean something to him.

But was she lying when she said nothing was going on.

There had been some definite flirting going on and the kiss. He had been looking at her the other day when they were running. But they hadn't talked about it.

She followed him down the stairs to the kitchen where Molly was cooking dinner. Hermione had gotten used to cooking dinner for her and Harry. She liked to cook. She sat down next to Harry, Ron was on her other side and the girl Sara was on Ron's left.

Ron looked at Harry.

"Is it ok that Sara stays for the rest of the summer her father and bill are on a mission in China to see if they can catch a wild dragon there."

Harry saw the question coming because he had seen that there were three trunks in the hallway.

"Sure Ron, there's always room for more in this house," he said hospitably.

He had already decided that it would be best if Sara stayed for the summer. That way, he wouldn't have to hear Ron moping all summer and talking about how much he missed her.

He caught Ginny's eyes and saw her role them in Sara's direction, and they both stifled a laugh.

Hermione saw the two of them looking at each other and felt jealousy swell up inside of her. For a few minutes she contemplated whether or not she had a right to say anything. She pushed the food around on her plate. It wasn't until she felt harry lean in and whisper something in her ear that she stopped playing with her fork.

"Personally, I would have to say I enjoy your cooking much, much more."

His breath tickled her neck and she couldn't stop the blush from pinking her cheeks.

For the rest of the meal the conversation went on as it usually would. The only difference was the looks Harry was giving her when no one was looking.

After dinner it was late and they all retired to bed, each to their own rooms. There were so many rooms in the house that Harry saw no reason for them to share. Even though he suspected that Sara and Ron would probably opt to room together.

Harry lay in the master bed unable to fall asleep. He finally dosed off thinking of Hermione and whether or not he could have a future with her.

Hermione fell asleep thinking of Draco and all he had been through in his life. She didn't know exactly how she felt about harry but she knew for sure that she definitely wanted to kiss Draco again. She woke up around one and made her way to the bathroom. One her way back she found herself walking into the library. She had to see Draco she had to tell him that she wasn't completely honest with his when she said nothing was going on with Harry.

She pulled the leaver and saw that the room was transformed in to an enormous bed room with an enormous bed in the middle. Figures that he would imagine the best room possible for himself.

She made her way over to his bed and quietly sat on the corner. She took a sharp breath in when she realized that he was wearing nothing but the sheet that was conveniently covering his waist. She saw the scars around his stomach she reached across to touch them again. For a few minutes she traced them unstill she was sure she could write a paper on the design they created across his stomach. She heard him moan and saw little goose bumps erupt over his entire torso. The moan was one of the most magical sounds she had ever heard. She didn't even realize that he had woken up. It was only when she felt his arm move to pull her closer.

"I wanted to thank you for everything today." He said in a sincere voice as she laid her head down on the pillow next to him.

"It was nothing, I'm sure you would have done it for me." She said grateful he didn't yell or kick her out. She continued, "I just want you to know that I wasn't completely honest before, when I said there was nothing between me and Harry." She said, not sure what she expected his reaction to be. "He kissed me earlier this week. I don't know what it means but I do know that I needed to see you tonight and I needed to see if that kiss was just a onetime thing or…"

She was cut off by him turning on his side to face her. He took his left hand and moved it up to stoke her cheek and moved his other hand to pull her closer to him. He looked at her with those captivating gray eyes and kissed her.

It was like an eruption had gone off inside her. There was so much more passion in this kiss. She rolled him over so she was half way on top of him and deepened the kiss his hands were roaming respectfully? over her silk night dress, careful to avoid any places that might upset her.

Draco was not sure what he was feeling. He had kissed a few girls in his years in Hogwarts, but not like this. He had never felt like this before. He didn't want to push her into anything she didn't want to do. Especially choosing him over potter. If she needed time he would give it to her

When they broke apart he looked into her eyes.

"I don't care if you kissed Potter as long as you keep kissing me." He said with his smirk. That melted Hermione into a puddle. This kiss she initiated. It was more forceful. And by the time they broke apart both were breathless and she knew she had to be getting to bed. She looked at him and said she would see him tomorrow. And she apologized for barging in the way she did.

"Don't be sorry Hermione; I loved every second of it. Just from now in I think I'll sleep in pants, because I'll be expecting more visits like this in the future." He said in a sweet voice that she was a bit surprised to hear coming from him.

She knew that she would be making the trip tomorrow night as well and leaned in and gave him another kiss, turned and left to room with a huge smile on her face and made her way back to her bedroom.

AN: I hope you guys are enjoying the story … I have up to chapter 10 written so leace a comment and ill post faster !!!!!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Hermione was awoken by the sun shining across her face.

'What time is it?' she thought to herself.

She got up and looked at her door and she suddenly remembered what had happened last night.

She had gone into Draco's room in the middle of the night and not only did she climb into his bed, but she woke him up and had spent Merlin knows how long kissing him.

"Draco Malfoy." She whispered in disbelief.

She could hardly contain the butterflies that had risen in her stomach. She didn't know how she was going to look at Ginny and not tell her what had happened the day before.

Hermione had considered Ginny her best friend other then the two boys who she met on the train seven years ago. And she had not kept a secret from any of them other then the answers to their charms tests.

"HARRY!!!!" she panicked

"WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!!" she was now pacing back and forth across her room and she didn't even hear it when her door was opened and someone entered.

"You haven't slept this late all summer are you feeling ill?"

Hermione jumped at hearing the voice she turned to see Harry standing there with a towel around his waist and another towel in hand drying his messy black hair.

She froze for a minute and just stared at him.

And she saw a smirk cross his face.

She was confused at what he could possibly find funny until he spoke up.

"Now who is the one staring?" She knew he was referring to the first day they trained and how she accused him of staring at her chest.

"I, ….. I.. was not staring." She said as forcefully as she could. But truth be told she was staring. Harry had a completely different body then Draco. Draco was hard and muscular. But Harry seemed to fit perfectly into his skin and she had to admit he looked amazing.

What was she doing? She can't stare at Harry like that she was snogging Draco just hours before.

"Why don't you sit down Hermione?" he said, motioning towards her bed. He waved his wand and the door closed as they both reached the bed.

"I have been meaning to talk to you since my birthday but it never seemed to be the right time." He said kind of shyly. Hermione didn't know if she liked where this was going. But nodded for him to continue.

"When we kissed the other day it was amazing Hermione." She blushed. "You know that I have only ever kissed Cho and Ginny and I know that when I kissed you it was a completely different feeling. I don't know if it was just me or if you felt it too… " he trailed off.

"I did feel it too Harry." She saw him breathe a sigh of relief.

"I was thinking that I am in no position right now to be in a serious public relationship with anyone. If Voldemort were to find out that you were with me you would be even more of a target then you are now." He said this as if he had rehearsed it many times.

She was not expecting that to be what came out of his mouth.

"I understand." Was all she could muster herself to say.

"Really? You don't mind not telling anyone about us?"He said hopefully.

"Um … no I'm fine with not telling anyone about us."

As soon as the words came out of her mouth she felt his lips on them. To say she was shocked was an understatement, for a few seconds she felt like she shouldn't be doing this but then all thinking ceased as she felt his tongue enter her mouth. She was lost. This was becoming addicting, the two of them were driving her crazy and they didn't even know it. She had been kissing Harry for quite a long time when they heard a creek in the hallway. Hermione snapped up and reached for her books. Harry caught on quickly and caught a charms text book in mid air as she threw it. As soon as she got the book open she heard a knock she had just enough time to send Harry a smirk before there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said in a completely casual tone.

Ron and Ginny both entered the room and saw that they were studying and after a quick conversation they all decided to meet in the library in ten minutes to do their homework.

After Ron and Ginny left to go get their books Harry turned to Hermione and they shared a laugh.

Harry and Hermione quickly resumed their kissing session. They really had no reason to go down there, because they had already done their homework but they knew it would arouse suspicion if they didn't come down so they grabbed their potions texts and went down to the library.

Hermione hadn't realized how hard it would be to be sitting so close to Draco and not go see him. As she pretended to look up the 347 herbs that could become addicting, she was really just day dreaming it seemed that things were beginning to get complicated.

Harry had said that he wasn't ready for a serious public relationship. Did that mean that he wouldn't mind if she was with Draco? No! Of course he would mind. It wasn't just that he didn't like Draco; they were enemies. Then to her anger she saw Harry and Ginny chatting quietly. She had to remind herself that Harry was not her boyfriend and that she herself was doing more than a little flirting with Draco.

She decided to not let it bother her and announced she was finished reaching for a book. Shortly after Ron and Sara stood and said that they were going to go play chess. Hermione heard Harry suggest the same thing to Ginny.

_They can play chess if they want to, as a matter of fact, they can do whatever they want. I have business to take care of any way,_ she thought as she walked to the Family Pride book she saw the wall shimmer and walked through.

The room was no longer the bedroom it had been the night before. Draco had changed it into a Quidditch pitch. Hermione saw him zooming around in the air. She smirked when she felt the hot sun on her skin. She went back to the wall and came out several minutes later in a bikini.

Boys are too easy she thought to herself, as she lay down on the towel that appeared in the grass.

Five minutes had passed before Draco noticed her. Hovering about twenty feet off to her side, trying not to block the sun, Draco managed to get a good look and swooped down.

He was now about three feet from the ground still staring at her not knowing what to say. She had her eyes closed and he didn't want to scare her.

"You can stop staring and come sit next to me if you like."Hermione spoke from her place on the grass.

He landed with his cocky grin.

"Well if I remember correctly it was you that was feeling me up last night after coming into my room in the middle of the night." He said touching his feet to the ground.

Hermione shot up to a sitting position to see him smiling above her "I was not feeling you up," she said in a final tone, but a creeping smile betrayed her amusement.

He sat down next to her, not sure how to act around her any more. She made it easy for him by pulling him into a kiss. It was then that she decided that she definitely liked kissing Draco just a little bit more then kissing Harry.

It was Draco who pulled apart first. "I actually wanted to talk to you. I'm glad you came."

"Well I came because I wanted to talk to you," she said, sitting up a bit so she was resting on her elbows. He was still leaning above her. She closed her eyes and a hammock appeared in the middle of the field right next to where they were sitting. He jumped up and held out his hands to help her up. He also took this opportunity to get another good look at her body; he never would have thought that this body was hiding under those robes all these years. He pulled her up and put his hands on her waist. She took three steps back away from his hands and into the hammock.

He had to remind himself that she was not one of the stupid Slitherin girls without morals and he would have to restrain himself.

"You go first." He said as he saw she was ready and he was not.

"I have been thinking about your situation today and I was thinking that now that you left your father's house and everything with me maybe you would like to help us. On our side of the war."

She said this knowing he would probably turn her down. But she had to try.

Draco had been thinking along the same lines but he was going to use the fact that she seemed apprehensive to his advantage.

"Do you have any idea what that would mean for me? I would be hunted by every death eater out there, not to mention every Slitherin above third year. " he was voicing all the concerns he had about asking her to assist him in switching sides.

"I actually have a bit of a plan." She said with a smirk happy that he didn't outwardly shoot her down.

They sat for about an hour talking about ways to keep their friendship, relationship and alliance quiet. No one other then Draco, Harry, and Hermione would know where his allegiances truly lied. And Hermione would frequently give Malfoy detentions that the three of them would train. No one would doubt that he was getting in trouble.

"So what do you think?" In this hour they had shifted from there seated positions to Hermione lying in Draco's arms. Hermione look up at him waiting for an answer, instead she got a kiss.

"I will agree on one condition." he said cheekily

"Oh?" She said knowing he had already agreed.

"I get to give you detention once a week as well, but on my detentions we do nothing but kiss."

"What could I possibly get detention for?" she protested clearly not wanting all those detentions on her record.

"…Hmm I will just have to think of a way to get you in trouble." He said leaning in again.

They both decided she should be getting back. She promised to pay him a visit later on that night. He kissed her good bye wishing she could stay with him forever. He didn't know if it was because he had been so lonely all summer or if he really did care about her as much as he felt he did.

Hermione changed out of her bathing suit and left the room after kissing him a bit more.

She walked into a library to see it empty still. She made her way down to the kitchen, glad that she avoided everyone. She made sandwiches, called everyone down for lunch, and was happy to see that Ginny and Harry came down separately.

All through lunch she thought about how she planned to talk Harry into accepting Draco.

Little did she know that Harry had been in his room thinking about how he could get Malfoy to help him train, to switch sides in the war and to stop him from insulting Hermione.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter eight

Breakfast was a slightly awkward affair the next morning. Ginny had woken up at seven and found herself to be the only person awake in the house. She had just begun to cook when Harry stumbled down stairs. He looked as if he hadn't had much sleep. About ten minutes after Harry came down and just as Ginny was placing the dishes of eggs on the table both Ron and Sara came bouncing down the stairs with smiles plastered on their faces. Ron sat down next to Harry with Sara on his other side. They were nearly done eating when Hermione came down looking as if she hadn't slept a wink the entire night before.

Harry smirked knowingly as she sat down beside him. He snuck into her room around eleven the night before and they had spent about an hour snogging on her bed.

_He remembered how he had walked in to see her wearing a sexy night dress; she told him she was on her way in to see him. _

"_You look amazing." He said sweetly before leaning in to kiss her._

_Kissing Harry while laying down was a much more intimate experience than just sitting on a bed, Hermione thought vaguely. The full length of his body was pressed against her side, leaking body heat into her. The scent of Harry, mixed with the taste of his lips and all the warmth he was giving her made Hermione's head spin. She threw her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her, trying to absorb his essence with her entire body. Hermione rolled to the side and hitched one leg up around his hips. Harry's hand came up to caress her thigh, causing a low groan in her throat. Draco's face burned in her mind, and with a sigh, Hermione lowered her leg, pulling it away from Harry's body. He seemed content enough to lie there kissing, so for a while, she kissed him back, thinking of the blond-haired boy she had come to care for._

_It was getting late and she said he should be getting back to his room. He left but not without a kiss good night._

Harry was looking around the table and noticed that the only one who looked as if she had gotten enough sleep was Ginny.

Again he noticed the slightly sickening smiles on Ron's and Sara's faces.

Harry lifted his fork backed with eggs and bacon to his mouth.

He only had enough time to chew and pick up his cup of juice before he heard what caused him to have about five minute choking fit.

"We had sex last night!" the statement was '_whispered'_ by Ron.

And by whispered we mean that he spoke quietly in Harry's direction, but not quietly enough that both Ginny and Hermione didn't hear.

Ginny noticed that Sara was humiliated, because the previously smiling girl looked as if she were going to cry and ran upstairs.

Ginny stood and ran after Sara but not without giving her brother a slap on the back of the head.

He was trying to give Harry his version of the Heimlich maneuver, regardless of the fact that Harry was breathing fine enough to tell Ron that he was ok. Harry looked up to see Hermione giving Ron a death stare before following the two girls' upstairs.

Hermione walked into to the room she used to share with Ginny. It took her about a second to analyze the situation. Sara clearly was unaware of Ron's stupidity prior to this situation.

Ginny was sitting on her bed trying to console the girl and looked up to Hermione with a _help me_ look and she spoke the words "Ronald is a moron."

Hermione couldn't help but flash back to some of the stupid things he had done during their brief stint of dating last year. Such as giving her chocolate he had stolen from Fred and George's room. The chocolate was charmed to turn you into the animal you would become if you became an animagus; she was a fox for 8 hours.

"I second that notion, Ron is a moron. But he meant no harm." She finished in a soothing voice. She came over to the girl and sat down beside her.

"Why would he say that in front of everybody?" she asked holding back tears.

"In Ron's mind no one but Harry was going to hear what he said. Was it your first time?" Hermione asked as if she were talking to a close friend not someone she had just met a couple weeks ago.

She nodded, clearly a little nervous.

"Did you use the contraceptive charm?" She asked knowing the answer by looking at the girls face.

"Oh Merlin, How could I be so stupid? I have got to go look it up I hope it's not too late." As she stood up Ginny grabbed on to her shoulder and sat her back down.

"Relax ill teach it to you, and it is not to late you have up to twenty four hours to do the spell but I recommend doing it before hand. My mother taught me last term during Christmas break, when I was with Harry." Ginny finished lamely.

Ginny went through the motions of teaching the girl the spell. Hermione couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for not telling Ginny about her and Harry sneaking about.

Sara was clearly torn between emotions, grateful and embarrassed. She was talking about her love life with her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend and little sister. She didn't know which one was worse.

After about twenty minutes Sara said then she wanted to talk to Ron. Hermione went down stairs to send Ron up to see her.

At the looks on Hermione and Ginny's faces as they sent him upstairs to Sara, Ron stood from the table and looked as if he were walking to his death bed.

As soon as he left Harry started laughing and so did Hermione. After a few minutes he suggested they try and get some training in while everyone was occupied.

They made their way to the library stopping by Ron's room to try to listen in; unfortunately they seemed to have set a silencing charm. They passed Ginny's room and saw the door closed.

They headed into the library and straight to the door before they entered Hermione leaned in and kissed him.

While kissing her he reached up and pulled the book. She froze. She didn't want Draco seeing. She knew he knew about her and Harry, but she didn't want him to get upset.

She pulled away by the time the wall was finished shimmering. He winked at her and stepped in she followed a step or too behind him.

She saw Draco she smiled. He was wearing black pants and no t-shirt, and Hermione had to remind herselfthat she had to stay neutral. She couldn't afford to hurt either of the boys.

Draco was using the room as Harry and Hermione had when they trained. He was firing curses at a dummy that was firing curses back.

He was throwing up full body shields like it was his job. He was dodging and rolling out of the way. Harry was looking at him wishing he could fight like that. Hermione however was thinking along completely different lines.

She was remembering the night before; she had planned on going to visit him around eleven but was swooped up by Harry. Not that she minded, but she did want to see Draco. She crept through the hall ways on her way into the library. She went in and climbed into bed with him. He smiled and opened one eye, then the other. He took a second to look at her.

"You.. look.. absolutely… ravishing..." he said kissing her in her forehead, left cheek, right cheek and nose before settling on her lips.

She looked at him and watched him set fire to the dummy much the same way he had done before. Then a couch appeared behind him he plopped down. Harry walked around the couch to stand in front of him.

Draco opened his eyes and looked up at him.

"Not exactly the person I'd like standing over me…" he muttered with a slight smirk as a water bottle appeared in his hand.

"I need to talk to you." Harry spoke with an even business like tone, trying not to let his past hatred of the boy into his voice.

"I was thinking the same thing Potter."

They both stood and looked at Hermione as if telling her it was ok and to stay back.

They walked into a room off to the side.

They went in to see a dining Room like table with two chairs. They each took a seat.

"I would like to talk about you joining our side of the war." Harry said as a cup of tea appeared in front of him.

"You have got to be kidding Potter. Join, you?" Draco was trying to sound as if he objected to the idea.

"I am not happy about it either, but each of us will get benefits out of the arrangement. You will be helping me train, teaching me dark magic and defensive magic as well as all the elemental spells." Harry finished.

Draco was impressed Harry seemed to have a plan in mind here, he would play along.

"And, what's in it for me?" Draco said putting his hands behind his head and leaning back.

Draco saw harry smirk and pull out a piece of paper, and laid it on the table.

Dear Mr. Potter,

You are being summoned by the Wizengamot to testify agents one Lucius Malfoy. Malfoy was arrested yesterday after a routine raid on Malfoy Manner. You are scheduled to appear before the court lawyer and review the case on the First of August. You will then be notified of the charges against the accused.

Sincerely

Minister Of Magic,

Rufus Scrimgeour

Draco couldn't breath. His father had been arrested. His thoughts were cut short by Harry's voice

"I have also received a letter that pending investigation all the funds in the Malfoy vaults have been frozen. When you do agree to help, you will be paid for your services. In addition the courts will be told by Dumbledore that you were not a loyal follower of Voldemort. That you have been helping our side for the past year, this will clear your name any you should receive any money that is not divvied out between the families of the people your father murdered." Harry finished strongly.

"Do we have an agreement?"

Draco still could not speak so he nodded.

"This is a legal binding contract drawn up by Dumbledore. It clearly states that you will not be permitted or able to speak a word of any plans or operations that you may overhear to anyone outside the order."

He handed a quill to Draco who took it and signed without a word. When he left Hermione seemed to be in a deep conversation with Sirius' portrait. She yelled that she would come down to lunch when she was finished discussing the N.E.W.T. exams.

Harry left and she turned to see that Sirius was gone and Draco was entering the room.


	9. Chapter 9

(AN: sorry for the long update time i will try and give you one chapter a week from now on i cant thank my beta enough with out her the chapters would make no scenes. )

Chapter nine

Draco waited a minute before following Harry out into the main room. He hesitated when he saw that Hermione had not left with Harry. He walked over to her and held out the letter that Harry left sitting on the table.

"Did you know about this?" he said in a slightly hurt voice.

Hermione took the letter from Draco's shaking hands, reading it over. It was fromexplaining that Lucius Malfoy had been arrested on suspicion of performing an Unforgiveable Curse.

Hermione was thrilled that Draco would no longer be in danger from his own father, and would be able to return to the home from which he'd been exiled. She moved to hug him as a huge smile spread across her face, but he sidestepped her. Thrown off, Hermione's smile faltered, as she looked at him in confusion. "Did you know?" His voice was more serious now. "Did you know about my father? Did you know that your bloody boyfriend was going to make me sign a contract signing my life away to him?"

Shocked by the tone of his voice, she stepped back.

"No Draco, I didn't. If I had heard anything involving your family I would have told you. What contract? Harry would never do such a thing."

But Draco didn't look like he believed her in the least, and he gave her one vicious look before turning on his heel and stalking coldly from the room. He exited through a door that appeared near Sirius's empty portrait, not bothering to say another word to her. Hermione stood, staring at his retreating back for several seconds. She suddenly became aware that Sirius had reappeared in his frame, though she was sure he'd been listening just outside the frame.

"I bet you were listening." She said with a slight sniffle. She had just begun getting to know Draco and she was afraid she was already losing him.

"You know Hermione, when I was in Azkaban I didn't get many visitors. Only family could visit. My friends thought I was guilty of murder. My parents were dead, my brother dead as well. You wouldn't know it now but back in the day before Hogwarts the Black family children were pretty close." He said as if he were reliving a memory of better times.

"My brother and I were inseparable and we followed our cousins around. Bella was the oldest, and definitely the leader of the pack. Andromida and I were very close, similar personalities, you know. And then there was Narsissa. She was by far the most beautiful and sweetest of the three. Good hearted even through her Hogwarts years, granted she was a Slitherin. It was in my seventh year when we learned that Bella had joined the Death Eaters. It was Christmas break of the same year that Cissy was promised to Malfoy by my uncle. He was much older and she was in love with another boy, but none of that mattered because it was a magically binding contract that my uncle had signed and she had no choice. After their marriage she changed, she needed to, she became stony and serious and nothing like the girl I grew up with. Three years later I was arrested and not too long after Bella joined me. I spent eleven years down the hall from my cousin and I didn't hear a word from her." There was a hint of sadness in his voice.

"As the group of us got older we all split up I hadn't spoken to Bella in five years. She wasn't the girl I used to play with any more. She was deranged and obsessed with loyalty and power. She was beyond helping. It was Narsissa that got to me, she didn't marry Malfoy because she loved him she married him because her father made her."

"Narsissa visited once a month or so to bring Draco to see Bella on Lucius' request. He seemed to think that Draco should become acquainted with the top Death Eaters. She would always slip me a bit of chocolate. I saw Draco grow up, the older he got the more loyal to Lucius he became and somewhere around twelve he refused to look into my cell all together. Old magic families were taught that men deserved respect, even in Harry's family. Harry's grandmother, she would only talk when spoken too when in front of anyone pureblood outside of the family. But she was much like Molly when alone with James and her husband." he said with a slight smile wondering if anyone else had ever made the comparison.

"You see, Draco was born and bred to follow the Dark Lord and his father. He loved and respected his father and would never wish anything bad to happen to him regardless of how he had been treated."

"You need to respect that he loved his father even if you didn't," Sirius said in a soothing tone. He understood why Draco was upset. He had been in kind of the same kind of situation with his parents. He didn't believe in what they believed in but that didn't mean that he loved them any less, except maybe his mother.

"The most important thing is to make sure that he knows you didn't betray him."

"How?" she asked in defeat. "He's gone and run off."she asked in defeat.

"He will be back, he is probably just checking on Narsissa."

Hermione left after a few more minutes of talking to Sirius.

"When Hermione exited through the bookshelf, she was shocked and furious to see Harry and Ginny playing chess right there in the library. He was acting like nothing had happened, but Harry had known Hermione was still in there with Draco, and he knew she would be coming out soon. He had known where she was, and there were so many other places in the house where they could have played chess, Hermione could only conclude that Harry had wanted Ginny to see the room for some reason. The room was supposed to be a secret that Harry shared with her, but now he was setting up a situation where Ginny would almost have to discover the room."

Hermione stormed over to Harry opened her mouth to yell at him, but was interrupted by Ginny.

"Hermione what's wrong, and where did you come from?"

Hermione was speechless with rage. How could Harry have been so stupid as to play chess with Ginny right in front of the door to their room? She was so angry with Harry's blatant disregard for their secret that she didn't have the patience to explain the room to Ginny. In fact, she was feeling as though the younger girl didn't have a right to know it existed, and that perhaps she could stay in the dark about it until kingdom come.

"Ginny I think it best that you leave, I need to speak with Harry alone." He said this barely containing her anger. She did not break eye contact with Harry until the girl spoke up.

"But …. I … we are in the middle of a game." said the girl who clearly didn't like the fact that she was being forced to leave.

"We will pick up in as soon as we are done talking ill come get you." Harry felt bad Ginny and him were just becoming friendly again after their break up last March.

"Ginny, please." Harry said glancing back between Ginny and the still scowling Hermione.

Ginny pushed herself away from the chess board and began to sulk out of the room. She paused, glancing suspiciously between Hermione and the bookshelf from which she had so mysteriously emerged, and pressed her hand to it. The little redhead was visibly surprised to find that it was as firm and solid as any other bookcase she had ever felt. With a slight huff, she turned on her heel and stalked from the room.

Harry sat back down on the squishy couch and looked up at Hermione.

"You know Hermione, there was no need to be so mean to Ginny." He spoke wearily because he couldn't figure out in his head what had the girl so upset.

"And _you_," she said poking him in the chest "didn't have to be so mean to Draco."

"Malfoy? You're mad about Malfoy? And since when do you call him Draco?" He said, still not fully understanding why she was angry.

"Never you mind what I call him. You had no right to bombard him like that and make him sign that contract. You should have left a decision like that up to him instead of forcing him."

"The contract was the only way to make a person like him help us. Did you know Dumbledore had Snape sign a contract too at first." To Harry's astonishment she seemed to be getting more angry by the second. Harry stood up to face her.

"A PERSON LIKE HIM? YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM." She pushed him down and turned back towards the book case that held the entrance to the room.

About three feet from the door she turned back to Harry. "Regardless of who his father is no one deserves to find out about something like that by being forced to sign a stupid contract."

She went into the room hoping she would see Draco, but he wasn't there. He still hadn't come back from Malfoy manor. She seriously considered going in after him but she didn't think he wanted to see her, and moreover didn't think she would find herself welcome at the Malfoy Manor. Hermione shuddered when she thought of the "welcome" she would receive if anyone related to Lucius Malfoy recognized her as a Muggleborn witch. It would be even worse if she were identified as Harry Potter's best friend.

"She closed her eyes and imagined the silver and gold bedroom she had walked into that first night she visited Draco. She curled up in the big soft bed, determined to wait there until Draco got back from wherever he was. Before she knew it, Hermione had fallen asleep, surrounded by Draco's opulent bedcovers and the sweet scent on him.

The next morning she was awoken by a hand shaking her she smiled.

_Draco's back._

He opened her eyes and saw not the grey eyes she had been hoping to see but dark green ones.

"What are you doing in here?" She said putting the pillow over her face.

"I came to check up on you, and apologize." He took a breath and continued.

"I am sorry that I didn't tell you before hand and I am sorry that he was forced to sign the contract. It is only legally binding for six months. But I am not sorry that his father got arrested and I am not sorry that Malfoy is going to be training me. We need all the help in the world to prepare for this war. Did you know that one of the charges against Malfoy is breaking into your house Hermione? Another was Ron's in the beginning of June. Lucius was captured when the alarms went off at the Lovegoods three days ago. He is trying to get everyone we know. He almost got you. He ruined your family. How can you be calling his son Draco and defending him like he is a friend?" Immediately Harry felt guilty no one had mentioned Hermione's parents since she had erased their memories. How could he have been so insensitive? He looked up at her, fully expecting her to be upset or crying, but she looked nervous.

"Harry I need to tell you something, A few days ago I came in here to get a book I forgot and I saw Draco duck into a room, I followed him in there and saw he was beaten up pretty badly …" she told her story leaving out the part where she ran her fingers over his chest and also the part where she kissed him.

"Since that day Draco and I have been …Civil. I come in and talk to him. He is actually completely different when you get to know him." She knew didn't want to make anything worse for Draco and she knew that if Harry knew about them now it would be good for no one.

"Hermione you should be more careful. He is the son of a Death Eater." He was more than a little skeptical about her story.

"Oh please Harry I know perfectly well who his father is and I happen to know he is nothing like his father."

"Ok Hermione we will see," He said hoping that she was right and that he was nothing like his father. Harry left the room and Hermione resumed sitting on Draco's bed she grabbed the book she was reading and waited for Draco to come back.

Hermione remained in Draco's bed for two days Despite Harry's repeated efforts to get her to emerge from the gold bedroom, Hermione stayed where she was, not responding to anything he said or did. Ron and Ginny had noticed Hermione's absence, and it was getting more difficult to dodge their questions as the hours went by. After all, she could only spend so much time in the bathroom.

After midnight of her second day of waiting, Hermione was genuinely worried about Draco. She hadn't seen or heard from him since he had stormed out, but he had never been gone for this long before.

Hermione made a decision she wasn't going to wait around for him to come back. She was going to go in after him. She was going to go into Malfoy manor and bring him back.

AN: this is the longest chapter so far ..... i hope you like it please review .... i live for reviews. happy reading


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Hermione stood up and walked to the wall next to Sirius' vacant portrait. She wondered briefly whether he had any other portraits that he went to visit. She reached the wall and she realized that it might not be safe to enter the. She didn't know if there were any anti-Muggleborn wards. She pulled out her wand, determined to find Draco.

Hermione went to the wall and was relieved to see the wall begin to shimmer. She took a step not sure what she was going to find on the other side

She walked through the wall and into a mirror image of the room she had just left. Her suspicions that Draco had modeled his room that branched off the library after his actual bedroom at Malfoy manor were confirmed. She looked around and saw that there were no there were no trophies, no obvious personal belongings anywhere that Hermione could see. This just didn't look like the room of a teenage boy, especially not one born into such wealth and so proud of it.

Looking around the room she not only noticed that Draco was not in it but also that there was a trunk on the bed half packed. It stuck out like a sore thumb in the pristine room. Hermione didn't think she could find a single speck of dirt in the room if she had all day.

She breathed a sigh of relief as it occurred to her that no alarms had sounded. No one had been notified of her presence in the house.

Hermione made her way to a door off to the left of the room where she wanted to find Draco." She needed to tell him to come back with her. She couldn't have him thinking he couldn't trust her.

She opened the door and peeked her head out, not to find a hallway, but an enormous bathroom complete with an Olympic sized bathtub. What looked to be a waterfall, but which she quickly realized was a shower stood against the far wall, and lined against the edge of the bathtub all the way to the shower were dozens and dozens of scented soaps and oils. Hermione wandered up the row, occasionally stooping to pick up a lovely bottle and smell its contents. The scent of lavender soothed her, and at the same time reminded her of her mission to find Draco. She realized she was wasting time and left the bathroom.

She peered out to see a hallway lit with floating fairy lights. She didn't have time to plan her next move because at that moment she heard a popping noise behind her an turned to see a house elf looking up to her with his hands on his hips.

This elf was identical to the elf Harry had freed from the Malfoys.

"Dobby!" she took a quick step forward to hug him but was stopped abruptly when the house elf raised a hand inches from her face.

"No Miss I is not Dobby" the little elf spoke in a tone nothing like the one Dobby would use with her. "You miss is not supposed to snoop. You must get ready." he said grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the room and across the hall to another bedroom.

"What is your name?" she said, lowering herself down to his level. "Are you related to Dobby?" Hermione said after the elf let go of her and she found her voice.

"My name is Doop I was Dobby's twin Miss." He did not look at her as he made his way to the bed. "The Mistress and young Master are waiting for you on the patio Miss Tea, time is starting at three; you must chance your cloths."

He motioned to the bed where three sets of dress robes were laid out. A low cut black robe that came to about her knees, a pale blue robe that looked a little tighter then she would have liked and a pink robe with frill around the bottom.

Hermione didn't do pink, so that robe was out. She looked at her two remaining options and chose the lesser of the two evils the blue robe she figured it was appropriate for a patio. She slipped into the robe it didn't fit perfectly but she did like it she stood in front of the mirror. She heard a voice. "A bit tighter here…. A bit looser there …" the robe began to mold itself to her curves it fit perfectly now like it had been made for her. It was then she noticed that it was the mirror who was talking. She opened her mouth to see if it would answer her if she spoke but she was cut off by another pop.

"You needs shoes Miss." Doop said holding out a pair of blue heels that matched her dress perfectly, there was only one problem. Hermione didn't know how to walk in heels.

"Let's go, let's go Miss, we mustn't keeps Mistress waiting." He said, handing her the shoes and opening the door. She sat on the edge of the bed and put on her new shoes. She was grateful when she felt them mold to her feet. She walked to the mirror and it was in that moment that she began to panic. She knew basic table manners but she didn't know if things were different for pure bloods. She had no time to be nervous it was ten to three and she had to go.

On the short walk to the patio she realized quite a few things. First of all the Malfoy's were clearly very rich. The furniture looked old and expensive, as if it had been passed down for hundreds of years. By the look of the portraits on the walls it looked like each member of the Malfoy had a portrait painted before they died. She saw countless blonde men and woman looking down on her some approvingly and some clearly disgusted by her presence. She saw three portraits at the end of the hall with the names Draco Narcissa and Lucius. The first two were occupied with sleeping carbon copies of Narcissa and Lucius. Draco's frame was still empty. The second and more important thing she realized was she had been so determined to come get Draco that she had not even thought of what she was going to say to him. Now, not only did she have to deal with him but she had to deal with Narcissa as well.

She reached the patio and saw a long table with about fifteen chairs. It was clear that the Malfoy's liked to entertain guests. All the way at the end she saw Narcissa sipping tea at the head of the table and reading the daily profit, and Draco sitting on her left reading a book.

Draco looked up and saw her standing awkwardly alone in the doorway. His face was stony and unreadable and there was not even a hint of happiness to see her.

Hermione at that moment felt that she had crossed a line in coming here. If Draco wanted to see her he would have come back to her. Now she was in over her head and she didn't know what to do or say. Draco was just staring at her over the top of his book. Narcissa had not yet noticed her.

Hermione realized this might be her only chance at leaving .Once Narcissa noticed her she would have to explain herself and she hadn't thought that part through yet.

She spun on the spot and silently thanked the balancing spell that had been placed on the shoes. Before she took a full step, the door to the house closed trapping Hermione outside. It was at that moment that Narcissa chose to acknowledge her presence.

"I had been wondering what was keeping you. Now come. Sit." Narcissa said looking up from her tea Hermione turned and saw Draco putting away his wand and looking at his mother in awe.

"You knew that she was here mother, and you didn't feel the need to alert me?" Draco said in a disrespectful tone that wasn't exactly making Hermione feel better about coming.

Narcissa clearly wasn't planning on answering her son. She put on a stern face.

"Now now Draco, aren't you being a little rude? You haven't even invited your guest to sit." she turned her attention to Hermione "we did teach him manners, but he seems to have forgotten them.

"A guest is invited, Mother," Draco drawled lazily. "I don't know why Granger is here, but it's certainly not as my guest."

The comment stung, but Hermione was more concerned about what to do with herself while Draco and his mother were clearly at odds as to whether or not she should stay.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to join us?" Narcissa said, still glaring at her son, but indicating the chair on her right side to Hermione with one perfectly manicured hand. Hermione didn't say a word; she just started walking towards the table. When she had nearly made it to the relative safety of her chair, Draco stood suddenly."Hermione might I speak to you for a moment in the garden?" he said a voice full of false courtesy

And before Hermione could open her mouth to agree because she would rather Draco yell at her then sit at that table and eat in awkward silence for Merlin knows how long.

"Draco… don't be absurd!" Narcissa hissed quietly, "let the girl sit."

Hermione thought for just a second that Draco would ignore her and walk to the garden and she would be able to escape whatever Narcissa had up her sleeve .But all hope went down the drain when Draco sat back down looking at her. She could not read his face. She had no idea what emotion he was feeling. Angry, upset, nervous? She took the final steps toward the table as if she were ascending the gallows.

Narsissa picked up a bell and rang it. Instantly, Doop appeared.

"Tea Miss? Cake?"

She vaguely heard Narcissa speaking to the elf. We'll take our tea now. And bring out a cake as well."

Hermione took this opportunity to compose herself. She could do this. Sirius had said that Narcissa was a good person at heart. She had nothing to worry about.

The elf nodded and disappeared.

She realized that she hadn't eaten since Draco left. Her stomach let out a loud growl. She rose her eyes off the table briefly to see what the two Malfoy's were doing he was looking right at her. She still couldn't read his expression, it was infuriating.

For a minute they all sat and ate in silence it was Narcissa that broke the silence.

"So you are the Muggleborn that my son has been hiding out with?"

"Yes Mrs. Malfoy. Hermione Granger."

"She is one of Potters friends mother."

"Potter's ... friends .... Oh the bookish one. I have heard about you. You are the one who beat Draco as top student for the past 6 years."

Suddenly Narcissa looked alarmed "Then why have you come?" Hermione braced herself to answer the question she had been dreading.

"She came to speak to me mother so if we are finished here we will excuse ourselves to the garden"

"Draco. I haven't even begun to—" She was cut off by her son who spoke with a voice filled with so much authority he forcibly reminded Hermione of Snape on a bad day.

"Mother."

Hermione wasn't surprised when Narcissa closed her mouth and nodded. Draco's voice was slightly scary.

"We will speak later Hermione," she said her voice quivering, trying to contain her anger.

Draco walked around the table and held out his arm to Hermione who took it like she had seen so many women do in movies. They walked in silence until they reached a clearing by a stream.

Draco looked at her, and for the first time since she'd first seen him sitting at the table, she could read his expression. It was not happiness or lust as she had been hoping. The expression she saw in his silver eyes was anger. He let go of her arm coldly.

"Why did you come here?"


	11. Chapter 11

so sorry for the wait ..... i have a new beta starchii who is amazing i hop eyou like it ... please leave comments ... i love them!!!

Chapter Eleven

"What... What am I doing here?" She knew she would have to explain to Narsissa but she didn't think she would have to explain to Draco. "Well, I thought that would be fairly obvious. I came to bring you back," she said in a voice she hoped would convey the fact that she missed him.

"Your boyfriend sent you to get his trainer back, how nice of him." Draco's tone was strong and confident.

"Harry is not my boyfriend. And he didn't send me, I came on my own." Her usually strong voice was weak and vulnerable.

"I only returned to the house to pack some things, the trial is in two months and we will probably lose the house. We want to save some family air looms. So go back and tell Potter I will be there to start his training in three days." Draco turned to leave but was stopped by a hand grabbing his arm.

Realizing that she needed to be bolder, she took a deep breath.

"Draco, I missed you. That's why I came. I wanted you to come back," she said, taking a step closer to him. She was looking deep into his grey eyes, trying hard to transfer all the feelings she had for him through their eyes. After a few seconds, his eyes softened a bit. She took this as a good sign and took another step closer. They were now standing toe to toe and she was still looking into his eyes.

"Did you miss me?" she said in as sweet a voice as she could muster.

She saw his lips turn up slightly as he rolled his eyes.

"Sure, Granger, I missed you," he said in a sing song voice as he leaned in to kiss her lightly on the lips.

He grabbed her hand and led her through a flowery path. She was looking at all the flowers but couldn't put a name to any of them, which was saying something because she had spent summer after summer in her mother's flower garden. She figured they must be magical breeds.

"Come on, I want to show you something." (Come sounds like he's commanding her in a really creepy way.)

She walked silently fully content to have her fingers twined through Draco's as he led her through the grounds to his favorite spot. She was drawn back into the present when he suddenly stopped. She looked around to see a beautiful flowing waterfall that dropped into a crystal clear pool of water. She could see that at the bottom of the pool were hundreds of Knuts and Sickles settled on the bottom of the lake. There were a few though that were hovering an inch or so above the water.

"This is the pool of dreams," he explained, "my great-great-grandfather also named Draco Malfoy created the pool and since then generation after generation of Malfoy's have thrown a coin into the pool and made a wish. Legend says that when the wish you make comes true, the coin floats to the top."

Hermione was staring at the pool. The water was so shallow and so clear you could almost make out the dates on the coins.

She absent mindedly sat on the bank of the water to get a closer look. He stood back and watched as she dipped a single finger into the water. He saw the ripples that expanded from the place her finger entered.

Hermione was still not used to magical households, and simple magical objects still amazed her sometimes, but this Pool of Dreams sounded like something out of a fairy tale.

She turned her face to Draco and, with a smile, he came to sit beside her on the plush grass. He handed her a coin. She closed her eyes tight and made a wish and threw the coin into the water. But almost as soon as the coin hit the surface of the water and began to sink it floated back to the top. She smiled a huge smile and ignored Draco's questioning looks.

For the rest of the day, they sat and talked about everything and nothing. He showed her most of the grounds, the stables, and the gardens. They only returned to the house when he knew Narcissa would be asleep.

As they walked through the halls of the house, he explained the portraits and introduced her to some of the friendly ones. As they made their way toward the hallway their rooms were in, she started to feel a little nervous. He hadn't kissed her since she told him she missed him. He hadn't been distant but not as affectionate as she would have liked and she just couldn't read his face.

When they came to their doors, his on the left and hers on the right he pulled her toward his door. She gave him a skeptical look as if to silently say 'don't even think about it'.

He laughed at the look he received. "You'll need something to sleep in, wont you Granger?" he said with a smirk on his face.

She nodded not knowing what to think of the smirk but followed him in. He released her hand, leaving her standing alone in the middle of his room while he made his way over to a closet in the middle of the room. He instantly grabbed a tee shirt and a pair of pajama pants. He walked over to her and handed her only the shirt.

She knew he meant for her to only sleep in the shirt and at home or in the girls' dorm that wouldn't have been a problem, but here she didn't want to show any more skin than necessary. She didn't want to give him any ideas. She looked at him with her signature look that usually told Harry or Ron to stop fooling around and held out her hand.

He made a pouty face and handed her the pants. She turned on the spot and walked directly to the door she thought was the door to the hallway, but as she entered, she realized she had found the bathroom. She walked in and closed the door. She took a minute to compose herself, changed her cloths and looked in the mirror. She was grateful once again as the mirror altered the cloths to fit her. She looked up at her reflection and fixed her hair, took a deep breath and walked out of the room. She saw Draco lying in bed already in matching pajama pants and no shirt, reading a book.

Draco glanced up at her over his book and looked her up and down. He noted the curves of her hips and the awkward way she was just standing there. He moved his eyes back down to the book.

It was only a matter of seconds that he heard a 'humph' sound coming from the girl in his room. It reminded him much of Professor Umbridge and he had to suppress a smile as Hermione spoke up.

"Well aren't you going to come say good night," she said with one hand on her hip and a bit of attitude in her voice.

He closed the book and scooted his legs so they were hanging off the bed and he sat up. He patted the bed next to him. When he saw her face go hard, he stopped playing around.

"Relax, I just want to talk," he said, looking into her eyes. Coming out of the bathroom, she told herself that she was just going to say good night and then go into the spare bedroom. She found herself standing there looking at him waiting for her to come sit and she found her resolve crumbling.

She walked over to the bed and determined that talking was all they would be doing. As she sat down, she heard the boy next to her laugh. She snapped her head around to glare at him with every intention of telling him off, but she saw that he was smiling at her.

"Granger I said relax I only want to talk okay, you have nothing to worry about. I won't even kiss you unless you beg for it," he said giving her a playful nudge to loosen her up.

"You know I won't beg, right?" she said with a smile on her face. It was at that moment that she realized that this boy had been nothing but nice, honest, and gentlemanly today and she had no reason not to trust him now. After all its not as if this is the first time they had been in the same bed. She suddenly blushed as she remembered that night. She snapped herself out of it as he lay back down. She grabbed one of the six plush pillows on his enormous bed and put it on the other side of the bed near his feet so they were looking at each other. He lifted a finger and traced it under the bottom of her foot. Hermione was extremely ticklish, so she yanked her foot back. He, in response, took one strong hand and wrapped it around her other ankle and began his assault on her other foot. By the end of their battle, they were both winded and panting. Her head was lying on his stomach and his head was on her pillow. They laid for a minute not looking at each other but content to lay in silence. It was a yawn protruding from Draco's mouth that snapped Hermione from her stupor. She lifted her head off his stomach, which made Draco look up.

"I think it's time I get to my own room," she said still lying with only her head off the bed.

"Why don't you sleep here, with me?" he had been hoping they would just fall asleep and he wouldn't have to ask.

When he saw the look on her face, he knew she had the wrong idea.

"Sleep Hermione. Just sleep I swear," he said in the voice that always made her melt. She smiled and moved to get under his blankets.

He scooted up to lay next to her and got under the covers. He saw her close her eyes. Hhe knew she couldn't possibly be asleep so he leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"Good night beautiful." She smiled and the smile stayed on her face as her breath evened out and she drifted off. He sat up and called for Doop and told him some things to get for Hermione and to place them in the bathroom. He took his pillow folded it under his head and laid there looking at the beautiful girl in his bed until he drifted off.

The next morning Hermione woke up around eight and, although they had gone to sleep on separate sides of the bed and not touching, she woke up with her head on his shoulder and one leg over his body. He had woven one of his legs through hers and was still sleeping soundly.

Hermione laid her head back down on his shoulder. She couldn't remember a time she had been more comfortable or better rested. She sat up again after a few minutes of trying to align her breathing with his.

She looked around his room and decided she needed a shower and she had been hoping she would get a chance to use his waterfall shower. She carefully made her way out of bed and over to the bathroom door. She opened it slowly, thinking it might creak, but it didn't, she was sure there was some magical solution to so simple a problem.

Walking into the bathroom, she smiled when she saw a note from Draco.

_Good morning beautiful, _

_I wanted to show you around the house today. Mother is gone for the day so we don't have to worry about her. Enjoy my shower and get cleaned up. We have a busy day ahead of us. I was hoping you would help me pack a bit later after we have some fun. I have taken the liberty of having an outfit laid out for you on your bed. See you soon!!!_

_P.S. Try and let me sleep a bit, I am not a morning person. _

She giggled as she took a look around his bathroom. There were a few noticeable changes about the room. For one, next to his green towel now hung a red one and, for another, next to his sink where one toothbrush hung from the wall was now two.

She smiled; he was making room for her here. She started taking off the tee shirt and pants he had given her. She made her way to the waterfall trickling in the far corner of the bathroom.

She made the shower, if you could even call it that, last as long as possible. The shampoo that came from a spigot in the wall smelled so good she washed her hair twice. She sat in the pool of warm water and shaved her legs with the magical razor that appeared and by the time she was ready to get out her finger tips and toes were pruned and she was sure she had never been so clean. She wrapped the scarlet towel around her twice, grabbed her cloths and peered out the door and into his bedroom. Draco was still asleep and she wanted to keep it that way, at least until she got on some decent cloths. She tiptoed the length of the room and if she had turned around she would have seen Draco's eye open just enough to get a good look at her in the towel before she left the room.

When she entered the room, she saw what he had laid out for her. He had to be joking. She looked down at the tiny bikini. It was a deep green, and she looked over and saw a little pair of white shorts and a tight looking green tank-top.

She glared but she knew she had nothing else to wear and she might as well play along with whatever it was he had planned for the day. She slipped on the bikini and looked in the mirror. As she peered at herself, she was grateful that the mirrors altered clothing for the bottoms were a little too large and the top was too tight. But now it fit perfectly. She slipped on the shorts and tank-top and once again turned to the mirror. They fit pretty well in the first place so not much altering was needed. That's when she looked down to see green flip-flops. She slipped them on and made her way back to Draco's room.

He was no longer in bed, but she could hear the shower going in the bathroom. She sat on his bed and ran her fingers through her hair. It was a matter of minutes before he came through the door with the emerald green towel around his waist. He was still dripping from head to toe and had a smile plastered on his face.

"We match," he said indicating his towel and her shirt.

She smirked and rolled her eyes.

"How did you sleep?"She wanted to know if he slept as good as she did.

He came to sit next to her on the bed and looked down at her.

"Eh, I would have slept better if this girl wasn't snoring all night."

She was mortified. No one had ever told her she snored. But at the look on her face Draco began to laugh.

"Relax beautiful I was just kidding you sleep like an angel." She blushed at his comment, but he just stood up and walked to a cabinet and grabbed his bathing suit and a tee shirt. He went into the bathroom without another word.

She felt her stomach growl; she realized she hadn't eaten a proper meal in two days.

He came out of the room, walked right up to her, slid his arms around her and kissed her. It wasn't a long kiss just a soft brushing of lips. It was the simplicity of the kiss that made Hermione melt. She didn't even hear her stomach grumble louder than the first time.

He chuckled, "Breakfast I think," he said, walking to the door.

They made their way down to the kitchen. It took much longer then she thought it would because each and every door they passed Draco took the time to show her what it contained. She saw two studies, an enormous library bigger than that of Hogwarts, and she also looked into five different spare bedrooms. She saw the nursery that Draco said he was raised in.

They made their way down a large staircase and took a sharp left into the kitchen. As soon as there foot crossed the threshold, Doop appeared. Draco ignored the elf and made his way to the small table in the kitchen. She could tell by the look of the kitchen that it was for the use of the elves and not many humans actually ever came down here. Coming up next to Draco, she took a seat to his right.

"I will take my eggs scrambled today and I would like bacon, not burnt this time," he said ordering around the elf as if here were a slave. "And bring pumpkin juice, tea and coffee to the table as well." Turning to Hermione, he motioned for her to make her order as well... she was appalled by the tone Draco had taken with the elf and if she was any less hungry she would have insisted on cooking both meals herself but in the interest of time and hunger she got off her chair and lowered herself to the elf's level.

"Do you make pancakes, Doop?" she said in a sweet voice that she would use if talking to a child. She saw Doop's eyes glance back at Draco and she heard him chuckle.

"Y-yes, Miss, I can make y-you anything you like, Miss." As Doop said this, she heard terror in his voice.

"That will be all Doop." Was all Draco said before the elf began speeding around the kitchen.

She stood and glared at him. He simply chuckled again.

"You are a strange bird Granger." As soon as she opened her mouth to recite her speech on elf rights from S.P.E.W, he interrupted her.

"Doop would you please give Mrs. Granger some bacon as well," he said in as nice a voice as he could muster.

She smiled. He was really trying to make her happy. They eat breakfast together, talking, and each time Draco talked to the elf he was as polite as any Malfoy could be. After breakfast, they spent hours exploring the house and going through secret passage ways.

Hermione was semi taken aback that he was happily showing her all the Malfoy secrets and taking her through passages that were password protected. Passages that she was sure his father would kill her if he knew she knew about them. She saw passages that led into and out of dungeon cells. Ones that opened up into Malfoy's office and even one that lead you right off the property.

It was around three that Draco lead her down to what would soon become her favorite place in the manor.

He led her through the dungeons.

"Draco please tell me why we're back down here, you know this creeps me out." She was having such a good day with him, she really didn't mind following him about but the dungeon was the only place that gave her the creeps.

All the way at the end of the corridor, he led her down a narrow stair well and strangely the further down she got the brighter it became. The rough black walls were becoming smoother black and white speckled ones until the black faded and they were white marble. She reached the bottom step. She looked around and saw the reason he had gotten her a baiting suit. She was standing in the grass of an enormous indoor courtyard. She looked at him and smiled.

There was a picnic basket set up on the sand. She looked around the beach. The water was crystal clear and she saw hundreds of tiny fish. She turned around to see Draco taking his shirt off. He gave her a wink and ran toward the water.

She in turn took off her shirt careful that the bikini was still in place, then her shorts and walked over to the water's edge. She bent down to feel the temperature only to be hit with a title wave from a laughing Draco. Now soaked in the cool water she began to swim toward him, determined to get him back for splashing her. She reached him, but he had swum to a depth that she could not stand at. He, being taller than she was, could stand on his toes. He grabbed her around the waist and picked her up high above his head and threw her like she was a beach ball.

This continued for quite a few minutes before Hermione gave up. Together they swam to shore to eat some lunch.

Hermione opened the picnic basket and pulled out a platter of sandwiches. They sat and talked on the beach for quite a long time. Hermione felt the sun beating down her. She knew it was just a ceiling like the one at Hogwarts. it wasn't real, but it sure felt real.

He laid back, claiming he was going to 'get some sun'. With Draco laying back with his eyes closed, it gave Hermione the chance she was waiting for to really admire his body. She looked once again at the maze of scars that circled his hard chest. She looked up at his face and for the thousandth time in the last two days wondered how they had ended up here. What series of circumstances brought the Slytherin prince and the bookish Gryffindor together?

Together, were they even together? What was this they were doing? And for a second she wondered how many girls he had brought down here.

"Draco?" she asked determined to have _that _conversation. But suddenly she realized that it was probably because of her and Harry that he hadn't made things official. So as he turned his head to answer her she came up with a back up question.

"Didn't you need me to help you pack?"

He smiled at her. "I asked Doop nicely if he would take care of it. But we should be getting back soon. I wouldn't want Potter to have a heart attack and send out the Order."

As she looked at his face and his smile, she thought about all the times she had seen him scowl. He had come so far. She took his hand as he led her back up the stairs and through the maze of hallways and eventually back to his room. When she entered his bedroom, she saw that indeed all of his belongings were packed up into trunks and cases.

One by one they passed them through the shimmering wall and into the room beyond. Once all were through Hermione spoke up.

"We should go find Harry," she said as they made their way to the opening to the Black house.

"Draco, Harry doesn't know about us," she said quietly as they entered the library.

"And I don't intend to tell him love." Truth be told Draco was torn, he didn't want to hide their relationship from anyone but even more than that he did not want to have to deal with Harry Potter, he was determined to make a life for himself among these people.

As she led him through the halls, he noticed almost immediately that the house was almost identical to Aunt Bella's.

She led him down the stairs and as she turned to go into the kitchen she felt a hand grab her.

Startled she turned to see Draco looking down at her.

"I don't know when the next chance I will get to do this will be." And with that he leaned down and kissed her. He took her arm and snaked it up around his neck. As the kiss deepened, she found herself pressed softly against the wall. She would have liked the kiss to go on forever but it was violently interrupted.

"Blood traitors!!!! Vile, disgusting vermin!!! Living in my house!!!" Draco giggled and took a step to stand in front of the portrait.

"Ah, Great Aunt Walburga, we haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting." He bowed curtly to her and Hermione looked on in horror.

"And who are you dear," she spoke in the same curt voice Draco had.

"Draco Malfoy, ma'am, the only son of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black."

"Oh thank Merlin, someone respectable to carry on the Black name."

"Well, I, for one, know that my mother would be happy to see you if you would like to pay her a visit, I do believe you have a portrait at Malfoy manor."

"I do believe I do, but alas I must not leave my house unprotected from blood traitors and Mudbloods!"

"I can promise you, miss, that I will watch over your house. After all, I am a Black." Draco flashed his trade mark grin and Hermione saw Sirius' mother soften.

"Okay, a short visit then." She smiled at Draco then glared at Hermione and walked out of her frame.

Hermione looked at Draco in shock. "You… you made her leave. That is amazing! That crazy old bat has been threatening me for years."

Draco said nothing but leaned into continue their kiss. After a minute or so, she pulled away.

Someone must have heard her screaming why had no one come? She thought to herself.

"Let's go." They each took a deep breath and released each other's hands as they stepped into the kitchen.

Hermione almost had a heart attack. Harry was sitting on the floor with his eyes wide open and black. Clutching his Occlumency book in his hand.

She tried for several minutes to talk, shake, and prod him out of his trance, all the while ignoring Draco's shouts to leave him be.

All at once several things happened. Harry's closed his black eyes and opened them again. Hermione stepped back in horror because the eyes that opened were not black but the red slits of voldemort.

Hermione felt a shock run through her as Harry raised his hand and pointed his finger at her. She lost consciousness and fell to the floor

Draco pulled out his wand and stunned Harry.

Harry slumped and Draco ran to Hermione's side. Hermione was crying hysterically on the floor where Draco had seen her fall. He ran over to her and pulled her into a hug. She cried for several minutes.

"Is- is he s-safe," she said, trying to catch her breath.

"I think so, I stunned him." She crawled over to Harry's sleeping form as Draco muttered "Enervate".

"Harry wake up!! HARRY!!!!" she tried desperately to wake him up.

Suddenly, after a few seconds she saw Harry's green eyes open briefly before he fluttered back into unconsciousness

_**Earlier that day**_

Hogwarts classes would be starting soon, in three weeks. Harry was sitting in a creaky chair in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. Hermione had been gone two days and he had to admit to himself that he missed her. Sitting alone in the kitchen, thoughts were flooding through his head. He was feeling conflicted. Ginny had spent the last week shamelessly flirting with him every chance she got. Ron and Sara had disappeared for most of the last week. He had only seen them for meals and because Hermione had been acting so odd and then run off to bring Malfoy back. Harry and Ginny had been spending all their time together. Until today. Today was the day that Ron, Ginny, and Sara were to go home and spend some time with the Weasleys at their newly improved and secured Burrow. He was now alone and finally had time to think.

Hermione and he were not together but every time he kissed her he felt a strange feeling overcome him. He wasn't quite sure what it was although it did not compare to the feelings that he used to feel for Ginny. He felt that he owed it to himself to explore his options. The year he had spent dating Ginny had been one of the happiest years of his life. But Ginny did not seem to see how dangerous life was for someone close to the Boy Who Lived. She was naive and stubborn and insisted on throwing herself in between Harry and any danger that he faced.

Hermione, however, seemed aware of all the danger Harry would face and was throwing herself into studies on how to make him more powerful. She had even gone to Malfoy manor to bring Draco back to train him.

Harry shook his head determined not to mope around like a lonely fool. He reached for the text he had received last year from Dumbledore '_Occlumency: Block Your Mind from Ann Un-Friendly Foe' _andflipped to _Chapter Three: Clearing Your Mind_.

As he began rereading the text for the umpteenth time, he began to fall into a trance. What started out as flashes of images turned into voices. Harry only focused harder and after a minute things came into focus. He could barely see in the dark dismal chamber, but he could hear perfectly. It was his hearing that alerted him to the hissing sound coming from behind him. He pivoted and saw a familiar large snake slither past him toward a door leading into a room that was only slightly better lit than the first.

To an ordinary person, a few things would seem odd here. A person might be somewhat surprised that the snake did not acknowledge their presence. They might also find it strange that the snake's hissing was as understandable as any humans voice would be.

To Harry, who had traveled through the memories of Tom Riddles diary and spoken to snakes at the zoo, it was not as shocking as it would be for an ordinary person.

"On my way, Master." The snake hissed, passing Harry's legs and making her way into the second room.

Harry followed the snake known as Nagini through the stone archway and into what looked to be a medieval throne room. He looked around to see that a man was pacing in the corner, but as the snake approached he stopped and turned toward the snake.

"What is going on in there, Nagini? Why has no one come to me? Why has no one told me how she is?" The man barked at the snake. Harry was shocked to sense sadness in the voice of the man he recognized as a younger Voldemort.

"She, Master, is not doing well for her magical core has been dimmed by the child," the snake spoke clearly and without emotion.

Voldemort's face visibly hardened at the snakes words and tone. "And what of the child."

"The child has been born healthy and powerful, my Lord, and has been moved as you requested."

The man motioned his hand to dismiss the snake as Harry heard the snake speak again." My Lord, the Mistress has requested your presence."

Harry was looking intently at the man sitting in the throne. He noticed that he looked more human than he did today. His eyes were not the red snake like slits they are today but normal brown eyes that looked like he hadn't slept in a week.

He saw the man stand and make his way past Harry and through the door Harry had come through moments before. Harry turned to follow him but was shaken by two invisible hands on his shoulders. He heard his name being shouted as if it were being shouted from across a Quidditch field.

"Harry wake up!! HARRY!!!!" As the seconds wore on, the voice became clearer. He recognized it as Hermione. But as soon as the world of Voldemort blurred and the world of Hermione became clear, he was once again being thrown into unconsciousness.

see .... i know you want more ... so what do we do to prompt the author to post quickly ... we comment!!!!!!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I'm so sorry …. my computer broke and I had to get a new one..... I felt like I was abandoning all of my readers. But I will not keep u waiting that long again!!!!!

I really liked this chapter …... not too much happens but it sets a lot up for next chapter which … I'm just gonna say ….is gonna be really good …. you should all leave comments …. I might post faster!!!!

Chapter 12

Draco lifted the unconscious body of Harry Potter and followed a crying Hermione up the stairs to what looked to be the master bedroom. On the walk up the stairs, Draco ran through a number of thoughts in his mind. _'How did this happen?'_ -was a major thought. Draco knew immediately when he saw Harry's eyes that he had been possessed by Voldemort, or that some part of Voldemort was being channeled through Harry. And while the thought alone made Draco want to run out of the house before Harry woke up with those red eyes again, he knew he couldn't leave Hermione here alone, whether it be to protect her or to support her while her best friend recovered.

He laid Harry down on the bed and conjured a comfortable lounge chair to sit in and watched as Hermione climbed up on the master bed to sit next to Harry. She pulled out her wand and began running medical tests on Harry. After about twenty minutes of hearing her run about fifteen basic spells, he heard her cry out in exasperation. He looked up to see that she had thrown her wand across the bed and was now crying in Harry's chest.

"There's nothing wrong with him!!!" she said, tears still streaming down her face. Draco had to wonder how a girl could cry so much for so long.

"He has no temperature, his vitals are fine, and his magical energy is high. I don't know what it could be." She said picking her wand off the bed where it had fallen when she threw it.

Draco stood and walked around the bed to the hysterical girl and took her wand. He waved it over the boy and a blue projection of Harry Potter rose off the bed. As he waved the wand over different parts of his body Draco could see in squiggly writing:

Harry Potter

Age-17

Weight- 158

Nationality –Scottish/Irish

Status-living

Currently- sleeping

Medications-none …

The list went on and on but Draco got what he needed and ended the spell.

Hermione who for a few seconds into the spell tried to get her wand back now sat staring up at him. "What did you do? -What did you see?"

"Relax Granger, Potters just sleeping. If he doesn't wake up by noon tomorrow, we will call Pomphry."

Hermione, for whatever reason, burst into tears again and launched herself at Draco, engulfing him in the tightest hug he had ever received. He was startled for a moment but quickly wrapped his arms around the girl and lifted her into the air like she was a child. He carried her over to the chair he had conjured. He sat and lowered her onto his lap.

Draco had little experience with crying girls so he did the first thing that came to his mind. As she sat there on top of him almost completely curled up in a ball with her head on his shoulder, Draco began kissing the top of her head. After what seemed like an hour, she looked up at him. With her eyes still red with tears and the imprint of his shirt on her cheek, Draco smiled.

"You are beautiful, you know that right?" Draco said staring into her eyes.

If he had any other look on his face, she probably would have hexed him for making fun of her. But instead she just wiggled off his lap, blushing.

"I have to use the ladies room, why don't you meet me down in the kitchen and we can have something to eat, I'm starved," she said all this without looking at him then rushed out of the room.

He took another look at Harry, glad that he wasn't awake to see that and followed Hermione out of the room.

He followed his memory back down to the kitchen and sat patiently to wait for Hermione. After a few minutes, his growling stomach got the better of him and he walked over to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice. But when he turned around to sit back at the table, he nearly tripped over an elf.

"My name is Creature and you are most welcome in my mistress's house." Draco nodded toward the elf, "If there is anything you will be needing, Master, let Creature know," the elf said before bowing and muttering a few incoherent words as he rushed off.

Hermione chose that moment to enter the kitchen just as creature rushed off.

"Now that's a proper house elf," Draco said, sitting at the table, "Why did he call me master?"

"Well I suppose that you are Creature's dream come true, a pure blood, and a Black," she said, opening the icebox and pulling out the juice and coming to sit next to Draco.

"And he probably thinks you are here to rid the house of filth." At Draco's questioning look, she tilted her glass toward herself.

A look of anger crossed over the face of Draco Malfoy. Hermione was quite used to that particular face being directed at herself, Ron or Harry.

Draco stood up took a deep breath to calm himself and… "Creature!!" Almost instantly the elf appeared bowed at Draco's feet.

"Creature, can you tell me about this girl here?" Draco said in an evenly calm voice as he motioned his head toward Hermione. The elf perked up, clearly eager to reveal to his master what trash was living in the house.

"Yes, yes Master. This girls name is Hermione. She is filthy Mudblood vermin, sir, and my Mistress would keel over in her grave to have such trash sitting at her table. She kisses the Potter boy and she also kisses one of the red haired blood traitors…" The elf was cut off by Draco holding up a hand to stop him before he said something that would end his own life.

"Creature?" Draco said in a voice that gave Hermione goose bumps.

"Yes Master?" the elf responded clearly not noting the tone of Draco's voice.

"Master … you view me as your true and rightful master, am I correct?" The elf nodded eagerly.

Draco put a clearly fake smile on his face to fool the elf, "… why?"

"You are a good pure blood master, sir." Draco took a deep breath as the elf continued, "Not a half blood blood traitor like Potter or worse the blood traitor that was my mistresses son Sirius Blac-"

Hermione hadn't seen Draco's arm move or connect with the elf but within seconds the elf was hanging in there air held up only by Draco's fingers around his neck.

"Draco!!! You put him down this instant." Hermione had jumped up from her chair and was trying to pull down Draco's arm.

"Do you see who is defending you?" he said to the trembling elf that he dropped on the floor.

"Y-yes Master Draco, sir."

"I think you should properly thank her. She is a mistress in this house and you will from this day forth obey her as you would me. Have I made myself clear?"

The elf nodded eagerly.

"I'm glad. I wouldn't like to you to be the second house elf cast off by a Malfoy."

"No sir, never sir. Thank you, Mistress Granger," he said with one quick breath.

"You may go. And why don't you try and do some cleaning?" Draco said as the elf scurried off.

He turned to Hermione fully expecting the look that was awaiting him.

"Draco, how dare you! I do not need you to defend my honor. Creature is troubled and he can't be held accountable for what he says."

"How much do you know about elfin history?"

"Enough to know that they have been enslaved for hundreds of years and mistreated by horrible pure blood wizards like you!" she yelled at him, trying not to show that she regretted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth.

The words stung Draco. He thought that he had changed her view of him in the last few weeks. But he had mistreated her for years, so he figured she was right to question his change in behavior. He took a breath and began to explain the history of house elves to her.

"Elves were once powerful magical beings. They go back hundreds of years before Merlin and for a few hundred years lived harmoniously amongst wizards. Their government and ours worked together." He saw the wheels in Hermione's mind whirling as she formed a new approach towards S.P.E.W. It probably had something to do with 'bringing back the old days of peace and cohabitation' or something.

"They used wandless magic, extremely powerful, but because the Elvin woman can only have one litter in a life time, except for the queen who never dies and can have a litter per year, wizards began to outnumber them quite quickly. When wizards became more civilized and created wizarding towns and schools, the elves thought we would try and take over their governments." He looked at her face, now completely entranced in the story.

"They attacked us, Hermione, children at school, people at work, elves flooded and attacked. We fought back and caught the queen, and in exchange for not wiping out the race of elves, she promised them to a life of happy servitude." Hermione still looked in awe of the story, so he continued.

"We let the queen be freed after one full life span of an elf so the oldest of her subjects was born into servitude. They were no longer loyal to her, and she was powerless and destined to live eternity alone. She hasn't been seen in over 1000 years."

Hermione looked like a child listening to their favorite story. She had both elbows on the table and she was resting her head in her hands staring intently at Draco waiting for him to finish the story.

"Now, wizards have bred elves to be loyal and hard working because that is what most wizarding families want. But there are some pure blood families that breed hostility and anger into the elves like the Blacks. Creature was trained as was his father and mother to hate all things that weren't strictly dark magic, and back in the day when wizarding-muggle relationships were so taboo that if a father were to find out his son had been with a Muggle, he was forced a stripping potion and he lost his magic. He was then exiled to live in the Muggle world, while more often than not the Muggle was killed off." Hermione was horrified; she knew how strict pure blood families were back then, but stripping their own child of magic and killing his mate seemed barbaric.

"I was just trying to protect you Hermione; he is more dangerous than you think." Draco said, taking her hand and kissing it before rising from the table and walking back over to the ice box.

He pulled out eggs and all the ingredients for the best omelet Hermione had ever eaten. They ate mostly in silence, both deep in thought about what had happened that day.

Deep, deep in the mountains, in a castle hidden from most of the wizarding population and the entire Muggle world, Voldemort sat in his throne room, trying to plan his next move.


	13. Chapter 13

Hey everyone!!!!!!

I'm soooo sorry about the long wait … it's been about 2 months … I'm working on a chapter now then I'll be sending it to my beta for it to be revised … I'm sorry about the wait guys ..

Maybe some comments might speed things up just a bit :}


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